


Angry (feet)

by Unda



Category: One Piece
Genre: Interspecies Relationship(s), M/M, Merpeople, Xenobiology
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-13
Updated: 2015-06-22
Packaged: 2018-03-12 05:04:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 29,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3344663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unda/pseuds/Unda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cross species interaction can be fraught with misunderstandings, especially when both parties are idiots. A Love/Hate Zosan fic where Sanji is a fishy bastard, Zoro is a human moron and both are stupid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

A/N: The title is taken from a Tim Minchin song, it was just so perfect that I couldn't not.

Sanji longs to dance and run, he wants to fight and kick, he wants to stand on tiptoes and leap with grace.

Sanji cannot do any of those things but he wants to so badly. He listens to the footsteps of people, he watches how each person's gait says something about their personality and wishes he could have that too. He climbs up the rocks overlooking the palace with some difficulty and watches balls with elegant waltzes and foxtrots.

It's one time that he's going back to where he belongs that he first sees the man. His hair is kelp green and Sanji would know. He's blatantly lost, staring down at the map in his hand and not watching where he's going. Sanji would call out to him but he doesn't want to get caught. Thankfully this is a problem that solves itself as the idiot walks straight off of a small outcrop and thuds down onto the one below it and the one below that, going ass over head over and over again before landing on the beach.

Sanji sighs, that fucker is almost certainly dead. No one can land on their head that much and still be okay. He slides down the rocks much more carefully and as such it takes about five minutes to reach him. The idiot seaweed head is dead on the beach only... when Sanji gets to him he's still breathing and noticeably not dead. Well, that's a miracle.

Sanji pulls at the map stuck under the idiot's leg and peers down at it, trying to see where was so important to get to that the idiot brained himself on three different rocks on the way down. Sanji gawps at the map. It's not that he doesn't know where this refers to, the place circled on the paper is more than familiar to Sanji with the unusual shape of its coastline. However, that's well over twenty miles away from where they are now and in the wrong direction to boot.

"You are a fucking kelp-brained idiot." Sanji mutters in horrified awe. He slaps the idiot upside the head.

The green hair's stupid eyes open up and he groans.

"You are a fucking kelp-brained idiot and you are lost." Sanji informs him, holding the map out into the guy' face

"Oh. You're... you're a mermaid." The idiot says stupidly, looking Sanji up and down.

Sanji snarls and grabs the moron's hands and presses them to his chest.

"Think again fuckface, I don't have the required body for a mermaid." Sanji points out.

"You have a tail." the guy notes succinctly. He looks down at Sanji's blue tail as if it might disappear.

"You really did land on your head a lot huh? Not a mermaid." Sanji emphasises, pressing the guy's hands to his (fuck you very much don't argue) manly chest.

"Oh. Merman I guess, cool." the guy rumbles sounding fairly ambivalent. He keeps his hands where they are though on Sanji's chest before, and with a thoughtful expression on his face, flicking Sanji's nipples with both thumbs at once.

"You PERVERT!" Sanji howls and sits back to, once more, slap the guy upside the head with his tail fin. This time he does it so hard that the guy's teeth clack together and his head snaps back. The guy eventually looks at Sanji again, rubbing his jaw in thought.

"Not bad. I'm Zoro by the way." He introduces as if he hadn't just perved on Sanji mere seconds ago.

"I'm Sanji and I already hate you." Sanji remarks, shuffling backwards away from him in the sand. Fuck this guy, he's not dead and even if he was Sanji doesn't care. He just needs to get back into the ocean and go home.

"Hey wait, you said I was lost. How did you know that?" Zoro demands, leaping forward and getting a firm and slightly painful grip on Sanji's tail fin. The blonde hisses and sits up clawing at the asshole's hands and arms but to no effect. Sanji figures that if he wants to get away without losing a few scales he needs to answer the bastard.

"Because, shit for brains, your map says you need to be here." Sanji says, jabbing at the circle on the map.

"And you are here." He explains, jabbing on the other side of the map.

"Wait... that can't be right. I followed the directions. What do you know about walking anyway? You don't even have legs!" Zoro points out.

Sanji slaps him again with his tail for that, the comment cuts too close to the bone. He is so fucking done with this chuckle-headed moron. He claws his way to the ocean.

"Okay, that was a mean thing to say to a guy without feet. If it makes you feel better, I'm lucky to still have them. I tried to cut them off once!" Zoro laughs stupidly.

Something in Sanji's brain snaps. He would give anything for feet, to be able to do all of those things that humans take for granted. The next thing he knows he's hissing and trying to drag Zoro into the water by his boots, screaming that he's going to drown him. To Sanji's utter misery the bastard kicks him in the face, escapes from his boots and rushes away out of reach barefoot.

"I will follow you wherever you go near water you moron, mark my words I will DROWN you!" Sanji hisses and spits in warning as Zoro's fleeing back retreats into the night.

Zoro arrives at his destination a few days late, but it's okay because Nami told him the event she was inviting him to was several days earlier than it really is. So actually he's right on time!

Despite the accusation of his friends, he's not stupid. Zoro considers that he'd have to be pretty stupid to miss the dark shape following him along the coastline wherever he goes. The party itself is near the dock and Zoro thinks that the merman probably thinks he's being threatening when his face appears at the edge of the dock, silent and menacing. The merman draws finger across his throat, threatening to kill Zoro.

Zoro sighs to himself. He's a good guy for the most part, but sometimes people find him a bit brusque and rude. He's not at his best after a head injury either and despite himself Zoro couldn't help but want to fuck with the guy. Even so, he's been rude to a guy who really just tried to check he was alive and even give him directions, at least until Zoro offended him.

He should make amends. Zoro walks to the edge of the dock and looks down at the merman in the dark water who is currently glaring up at him with wet hair plastered to his skin.

"Look, perhaps we got off on the wrong foot." He offers.

Those were apparently the wrong words to say. The merman howls in rage and launches himself out of the water, tail flapping angrily as he gets enough lift to bodily grab Zoro by the knees and haul him back. Zoro just manages to reach out his arms in time to grab one of the dock posts and stop from being dragged under entirely.

"I thought mer-people were all serene and shit. Stop trying to murder me!" Zoro yells, kicking at the deranged watery blonde. The guy hisses at him again and yanks at his knees, trying to drag him under the water. He lands a kick to the guy's ribs and the blonde claws his way up Zoro's chest.

"Drown you bastard!" The blonde yells at him. Zoro is still not budging but the guy seems serious. He winds his tail tightly around Zoro's leg and hauls himself up Zoro's body trying to reach his hands. If this asshole manages to get to his fingers then Zoro will fall off and he will drown if this guy has anything to do with it.

Zoro does the only defensive thing that he can think of, he bites the nipple that's dead in front of him. It has the desired effect, the guy yelps and pulls back. Zoro doesn't let go of his nipple but he does ease back on the pressure.

"What the SHIT?!" The blonde yelps. Zoro shrugs mentally, figuring that this might just get the bastard off of him. He presses his lips to the wet flesh of the mermaid and runs his tongue over the nipple there, his teeth just pinching at the nub. The merman flails and drops off of him, his hands flying indignantly to his chest at he does so. Zoro scrambles back onto the dock and looks down at the merman in the sea. His face and his ear fins are bright red in embarrassment, or maybe something else too.

"See, you're rubbing yourself all over me and trying to kill me and I don't even know your name. What about my virgin honour?" Zoro grins down at him.

"I told you my name already, but you'd smacked what little brains you had out on a rock if you recall. That doesn't give you the right to just- DO THAT!" The guy snarls.

"Oh. Remind me?" Zoro asks, feeling genuinely bad for forgetting it.

"My name is Sanji and you'll remember it for later you fucker. I'll be the last thing you scream out." Sanji yells at him.

Zoro raises an eyebrow.

"As I DROWN you! Not like- oh fuck you!" The blonde snarls, his earfins still deliciously red as he dives back under the surface of the water with a flash of blue tail. Zoro grins and makes his way back to the beach, he quite likes the guy.

Sanji stalks his prey everywhere that he can, following him at the waters edge, just waiting for him to get close enough again. He will die. Sanji will drag him under and watch the bubbles float out of his dead mouth. That'll teach him.

Eventually Zoro does return to the waters edge, with a friend this time. A rubber guy who appears to have a devil's fruit power. Good, he can't help Zoro then. They're picking coconuts from the waters edge and as soon as he's separated a little bit from his friend Sanji strikes. He wraps both arms around Zoro's legs and drags him back towards the sea. With three hauls he's got his tail back in the water and with four Zoro's flailing is making Sanji's work easier instead of harder, reducing the amount of drag on the beach by sitting up and trying to fight back. Soon Sanji has him up to hip height in the water and seconds after that he's fully under.

The water isn't deep enough here for Sanji to drag him deep enough for the pressure to pop him like a balloon, he's just going to have to hold him down and wait for him to die.

Fists and angry fingers tear at Sanji's skin as Zoro struggles. A hard punch lands on Sanji's left ear fin and it stuns Sanji enough to let him go for a second. Before he can react Zoro is out of his arms and swimming for the surface. Sanji catches him before he makes it but he gets a punch in the head for his troubles.

Zoro's face pulls into a snarl that releases a few bubbles, good, let him breathe his precious air away.

What happens next is entirely unexpected.

Zoro snaps down and grabs Sanji behind the ear fins, as Sanji's mouth opens in surprise Zoro clamps his mouth to Sanji's and exhales a good lungful of air into his mouth. The combo of air and water rushing through his gills at the same time chokes Sanji. He flails and releases the moss head as he chokes and struggles to force enough water through his gills before his body forgets what it's supposed to be breathing right now. He scowls up at Zoro's retreating form as he hauls ass through the water, his feet on the submerged sand now.

This guy is good.

Zoro should not be this concerned about a guy who has tried to kill him quite a few times now. He's lost count of exactly how many, perhaps it's the repeated oxygen deprivation that's doing it. They'd been fighting again, Sanji was trying to drown him and Zoro was expressing his disapproval with that plan. He'd managed to plant a foot in Sanji's chest and kick him away. That'd shoved them far enough apart that Zoro could surface and ride a wave back to shore as he paddled like a madman.

When he'd recovered from coughing on the beach he looked around. Sanji had caught him unawares too many times for him to feel safe this close to the water. A flash of blonde hair on rocks alerted him to Sanji's presence.

That puts him where he is now, namely worried. He has a weakly fighting merman in his arms who is dripping blood all down his clothes. He yells and hollers for Chopper and places Sanji on the beach. His ribs are a mess. There's a huge bloody patch on his side and as Zoro feels it out, tuning out Sanji's copious swearing as he does so, it feels to him like something is at least broken.

"How'd you manage to fucking hit the rocks on that wave when I made it ashore just fine? I thought you were supposed to be a good swimmer." Zoro mutters with anger that has nowhere to go but to Sanji.

"Fuck you and the seahorse you swam in on." Sanji spits out, blood trickling over his lips.

Chopper arrives and quickly sets about assessing the damage. He is the only one not to express any form of concern about helping the guy who keeps trying to drown Zoro. To Chopper a patient is a patient, no matter what. Zoro doesn't want the guy to die, he seems nice. Mostly. Somewhere deep, deep down.

"It's a fractured rib, I'm going to bandage it for you. I'm afraid this will hurt. Zoro could you hold him down?" Chopper asks. He reaches for Sanji's ribs but the blonde resists.

"I don't need any of your help, fuck you." Sanji snarls weakly, trying to shuffle back to the sea. Zoro is having none of it, grabbing a tight grip on Sanji's wrists and hauling him back before pinning him down. Sanji's tail thrashes and Zoro says nothing mocking as his shark like teeth bite into the leather of Zoro's boots. When Chopper is done bandaging the merman Zoro lets him go.

"Your ribs are broken, you'll need to stay away from anything strenuous for a month or so. Perhaps such as... trying to drown our namaka." Chopper suggests hopefully.

"You can stay here with us whilst you recover." Zoro offers quietly, looking into the merman's eyes. They're blue, a perfect sky blue.

"I'd rather die, you shit-bastard." Sanji snarls weakly.

"Ok, suit yourself." Zoro shrugs. He scoops Sanji up delicately and walks back into the sea. He's up to his shoulders in the ocean when Sanji's tail weakly flutters in the water and the merman slides out of his arms.

Sanji's arms are crossed over his midsection and he looks like he's still in pain. He lingers there in the water for a few long and silent moments before disappearing under the water with a slow tail flick.


	2. Chapter 2

Sanji doesn't like owing anyone anything. He can cope with a genuine act of spontaneous kindness, the kind that happens just because someone is in the right place at the right time. He does those for people and so he doesn't mind having them happen to him so much. What Zoro did though was kindness when there was no reason for it. He'd been trying to drown the kelpy bastard and then when they struggled apart Sanji got smashed on the rocks, he deserved it for losing a fight with a human. And yet... Zoro did help him. Zoro took him ashore and got his nakama to patch him up and then he let him free back into the sea.

Sanji's ribs are almost completely healed, he'll still get a little twinge if he turns back on himself too sharply but other than that he's fine. All thanks to Zoro.

It seems that Zoro is a sailor of some kind, they're on a ship with a little sheep head on it. He's been following them at a lazy pace and he keeps catching Zoro peering over the edge of the ship for him now and then. Sanji's not entirely sure why he's still following Zoro. Is he really going to try to drown him again after Zoro helped him that much? He's not sure. Maybe. Certainly whenever he hears the bastard talk he has an inescapable urge to murder him.

He follows the ship underwater because, well, that's what he does now.

One night however the ship is beset by a monster of a storm. Even from Sanji's position a good twenty feet under the water it's buffeting him about and he can see that their little ship is struggling to stay afloat. He feels a sinking sensation in his heart, he can't see how their ship can survive this, he's seen amazing sailors and navigators drowned in less than this. Surprisingly their little vessel seems to be easing its way through the lightest parts of the storm, dodging the whirlpools and undercurrents. Sanji has no idea how they're doing it but he follows their ship, keeping a wary eye on the pitch and tilt of the vessel.

Sanji pops his head above the water and scans the ship, he can see Zoro in the rigging, plastered with rain and illuminated by flashes of lightning in the distance. He's trying to do something to keep the sail in place but Sanji can't see well enough to work out what he's doing and he's not knowledgeable enough about ships to guess. He gasps at the ship runs into the edge of a whirlpool and violently pitches to the side.

Zoro is highlighted in the air by a strike of lightning before he plummets down into the whirlpool. Sanji is back under the surface and racing towards where Zoro ought to be. It's hard to find him, the water is murky with displaced sand and silt and the currents are smacking Sanji to and fro as well. It's minutes until he manages to find the idiot and drag him to the surface.

Sanji thanks the spirit of the Otohimi that Zoro coughs out the lungful of water as soon as Sanji drags him into the air. The ship is spinning away and Sanji can't rescue anyone else if they fall over, he just has to hope that no one else has the same accident.

It's hard to swim whilst holding Zoro above the surface but he manages it, he has no idea where he's headed but he needs to get Zoro to shore. Slowly the sea bed rises up to meet him and within an hour he's dragged Zoro onto the beach of a small island and pulled him far up enough the sand that he's unlikely to get pulled out to sea again. Sanji leans up on his arms and looks down at Zoro's wet features, his gently closed eyes and slightly parted lips. He runs his hand along Zoro's hairline for a lingering moment.

"WAKE UP FUCKFACE!" Sanji yells and backhands him in a very judicious manner. Zoro's head snaps to the side and he groans unhappily.

"Move your feet you unworthy sack of meat, you need to start a fire or you'll freeze to death. I might be able to live in the cold ocean but you can't!" Sanji barks out.

Zoro sits up all dizzy and uncoordinated. He rubs his head and groans again.

"Chop chop brainless wonder! FIRE!" Sanji yells. In truth he's scared for Zoro and the only way that he can tell how to express that is through yelling at him to ensure he's going to be okay. It's good intentions at a loud volume.

Zoro moves into action in uncoordinated pieces, his legs stumbling in a way that makes Sanji wonder if the idiot has hit his head or something. By the time Zoro's got the materials together for a fire he's shaking so violently that he can't manage to light it. Sanji sighs and crawls up on the beach, leaving tail tracks in his wake. He takes the sticks from Zoro and imitates how he rubbed them together, he's never done this before, being a merman he's never had a lot of need for starting fires, perhaps he should carry a lighter with him if this is going to be a regular occurrence.

Zoro rests on his side and breathes shaky breaths out on the base of the stick. Soon enough smoke appears and then the beginnings of fire, at that point Zoro takes over, gently adding small pieces of debris to the pile until it's bigger. His trembling starts to subside as the warmth of the fire washes over him and Sanji relaxes bit by bit.

"Did you see anyone else fall out other than me?" Zoro asks, his voice slow and cold. His eyes don't leave the fire and Sanji isn't sure what answer Zoro wants to hear from him.

"I didn't but... I didn't stick around to see, I just grabbed you and got out of there." He answers warily.

Zoro moves fast. He slams Sanji back down on the beach and thank goodness he's flexible because his tail is bent double underneath him, Zoro's snarling face is inches from his own.

"WHY would you save ME when they were in danger?! My nakama needed help and you just took me?! WHY?!" Zoro roars at him.

He is clearly upset. Sanji punches him in the nose, flicks his tail out from under him and catches Zoro in between the legs with it. That'll help.

"I can only save one person, it was hard enough keeping you above the water, I couldn't do it with anyone else. Besides, it's not like I saw anyone else but you fall in, I didn't choose you above anyone else if that's what you're pissed about. And you're fucking WELCOME for me saving your worthless human life anyway!" Sanji snarls back at Zoro's crouched form.

"Why would you save me? You've been trying to kill me ever since I met you, you've been trying to drown me no less and the moment I stand a chance of drowning you save me? Why?" Zoro mutters, his hands clenched in the sand.

Huh. Good fucking question. Sanji doesn't have a true answer to hand so a bullshit made up on the spot one will have to do.

"I want to drown you, I don't want to just see you drown. It's a subtle but important difference." Sanji sniffs primly.

"Fine." the human says in a dead voice and turns back to face the fire, his arms wrapped around himself.

It's silent now and oppressively so. Sanji looks out into the ocean and thinks for a moment.

"If you stay here and keep warm I can go find your ship again. See if the others made it and find a way to bring you back there if they're still ok." Sanji offers quietly.

The human looks over at him, his eyes sad but grateful.

"Thank you." Is all he says.

"Ugh. Just... keep warm okay?" Sanji mutters and slides into the water, flipping and skimming quickly out to sea. He retraces his route easily enough, though he's turned around once or twice by avoiding whirlpools and the like. To his surprise when he reaches Zoro's ship it's upright and sitting innocently in clear blue skies and sunshine.

"We need to go back and find him!" Someone above shouts.

"I've no idea where or when we even lost him, I can't just get us back there like that!" A woman replies with an upset yell. Sanji's ears perk up at the female voice.

"We have to try Nami, you know he would for us!" Another voice chips in.

"OI!" Sanji shouts up from the sea. He slams his fist on the side of the ship a few times to get their attention. After a moment the face of the little reindeer who bandaged him up peers over the side.

"It's the merman! The one that Zoro's been fighting with!" The reindeer announces. Several other heads appear over the side.

"The name is Sanji." Sanji replies irritably, he's not his whole goddamn species after all.

"What, are you here to gloat about us losing him? You've been trying to drown him for ages now, you're probably over the moon." A red haired woman snarls at him, her eyes are filled with angry tears and Sanji's heart wrenches for her.

"No, he's fine. I dragged him ashore about an hour away, if you give me a boat I can bring him back here." Sanji answers instead. The expression of all of Zoro's crew lighten instantly, he must be well liked.

"Get a boat now, and some rope." The one with the hat orders. Sanji supposes that he must be in charge around here, funny, he thought it'd be Zoro in charge. Ah, well. This crew probably stands a better chance of living if that idiot isn't in command.

He waits patiently in the water whilst they lower a boat and some rope down. The furry one insists on filling the boat with warm clothes, waterproofs, water and food for Zoro and covering the entire thing in a tarp to keep it all safe. There's a rope threaded through the metal things for the oars, Sanji has no idea what they're called of course, he's never even been in a boat before. With the rope though he can swim under the boat and pull it along behind him without tipping the boat forwards.

"Isn't it going to be hard getting that boat through the storm to Zoro and then back again if you have to be on the surface?" The orange haired woman asks him nervously.

"It's certainly going to be harder than getting here was, I'd better get moving." Sanji sighs forlornly and settles the middle of the rope around his torso.

"Hey, thank you for this... you didn't have to." The girl says, touching his arm. Sanji shivers and blushes. He manages to mumble out something about how she's welcome and a beautiful lady like her should get all she desires, then before he can make a bigger fool out of himself he dives down and sets off back towards Zoro.

Good god he has no idea how humans survive in boats. Whenever the boat pitches and rolls it yanks him with it, even with his strength in the water the whole thing is frankly starting to make him a little motion sick. As if that crime against nature wasn't enough he's getting rope burn from every time the rope yanks at him. He has to give whirlpools a wide berth to avoid getting the boat sucked in and drenched.

It takes him three times as long to get back to Zoro as it did to get from him to the ship and Sanji is way more tired than he ought to be when he gets there. Zoro is already standing up on those legs that he doesn't even deserve and watching Sanji come in as he approaches the island. At least the bastard runs out into the sea and drags the boat off of Sanji and drags it to shore himself. As soon as he's done that he sprints back out into the water, splashing it everywhere and picks Sanji up bridal style, leaving his masculinity to wash away with the waves. Bastard.

"Your friends are all fine, you're the only one who took a drink in the sea. They sent this boat full of lots of heavy shit for you so I can bring you back." Sanji groans. Good god everything hurts.

"Are you okay? No offence but you look like shit." Zoro says, setting Sanji gently down on the beach.

"Well, I was going to be super offended there but since you said no offence, we're cool." Sanji sighs, his eyes shutting wearily.

"Oh really now?" Zoro teases him back with a grin. Sanji doesn't bother to respond and instead just slaps Zoro wetly with his fin and rolls face down on the beach to rest.

Zoro leaves him alone after that and instead goes to investigate the little rowboat and its contents. He takes a big swig of water and eats a little of the food. He strips off his newly wet clothes and starts to dry himself off with a towel.

Not that Sanji is watching of course. Never.

If he was watching he wouldn't be admiring Zoro's perfectly muscled ass that's for sure, he wouldn't be staring at the dimples in his lower back just above it or the way the muscle is leanly defined. His eyes wouldn't be running over Zoro's deliciously defined hamstrings as he bends over and kicks his way out of his black trousers. He certainly wouldn't be admiring how that sunkissed tan runs all over his body, not at all.

Sanji is face down in the sand by the time Zoro looks back at him in his clean change of clothes, it's the quickest way for him to quell his blush and think about his life choices and why he seems to be leering at a guy he's repeatedly attempted to drown.

"Hey, I've got food and drink here if you want it, you should have some too." Zoro offers him, crouching down next to him on the beach.

"Don't start, just... just get in the boat and then I can return you to your group and forget this day ever happened." Sanji grumbles, ushering Zoro to the small boat and sliding himself into the water and getting the rope around himself. The journey back is a little less tiring, the storm has mostly moved on a little and dissipated in places but by the time Sanji presses his palm against the hull of the boat he's thoroughly exhausted. He bobs under the surface and hears Zoro and the other humans talking to each other, he leans forward and rests his head on the wood. After this he's got to find somewhere to sleep and when he does he's pretty sure he'll sleep for about a million years.

A strong hand closes around his wrist and pulls him up above the surface, the difference in tension makes Sanji whine unhappily. Zoro peers down at him for a moment before yanking him up higher and then catching him under his arm.

"You saved my life, the least I can do is to get you up here to have a rest or to get you some attention for that rope burn." Zoro insists, climbing up the ladder on the side of the ship.

"I'll have a look at that Zoro! I want to see how his ribs have healed too!" the reindeer pipes up.

"Ugh, no. I'm fine. I'll just sleep it off. You helped me out with my ribs, I helped out out. We're even now and I can go back to trying to drown you, if you drag me up there then this whole stupid cycle will start again." Sanji protests, squirming weakly in Zoro's arms.

"God, then we might actually be nice to each other on a regular basis." Zoro remarks with mock horror, still climbing the ladder with Sanji under his arm.

"The horror." Sanji agrees with a weak grin.

Zoro puts him on the deck first and immediately the little reindeer is fussing over him, looking at the place on his chest where the rope rubbed and feeling up his old rib injuries. After that the guy with the hat on comes by and slaps him on the shoulder, thanking him for saving his nakama's life. In all honesty it's a bit of an exhaustion soaked blur. What he does remember though is Zoro putting him in a large bath and running it until it's almost overflowing, he remembers the way that Zoro's hand dipped under the water and carded through his hair. It's the last thing he feels before sleep overtakes him.


	3. Chapter 3

The water that Sanji is breathing feels stale and thin, it's giving him a splitting headache. Not to mention that whatever he's leaning on is giving him back cramp like crazy and smushing his dorsal fin at an awkward angle. Sanji surfaces blearily and finds himself in a smallish wood panelled bathroom. What he'd subconsciously mistaken for seaweed is in fact the top of Zoro's head leant against the edge of the bath.

Zoro is snoring in a loud fashion and Sanji is frankly stunned that he's managed to sleep through it. Sanji leans to the side, stretching out his spine and inadvertently getting a better look at the sleeping man. Behind his eyes visions of Zoro changing the night before flick over and over like a mental slideshow. Sanji's ear fins twitch with pent up energy and Sanji squirms uncomfortably in the bath.

He's close enough to Zoro to feel the warmth running from his skin. Sanji runs so much colder than him that the difference is stark without even touching him. He knows just how hot Zoro is, he's had his arms around him many times before when trying to drown him. Now though with Zoro sleeping blissfully unaware next to him Sanji finds his fingers frozen just mere inches from Zoro's cheekbone. The heat from him ripples over and Sanji is so busy quashing the urge to just touch him that he can't bring himself to take his hand back.

Long dark green eyelashes fan out against tan skin and without the scowling tension of being awake Zoro is kind of... handsome in his own way. Sanji feels his ear fins flushing red and suddenly he might as well be fourteen again and crushing on the pretty mermaid girls in the pools. It's different this time though, Zoro is a human and it'd never work. He's spent months trying to murder him for one. Why's he even thinking about this anyhow? He must be sleep deprived. Anyway, even if he wasn't nothing like that ever works for Sanji because of who he is.

Shit, he needs to get out of here. Zoro dragged him back here to sleep as payment for saving his stupid human life and now he's got a little sleep he can get away and things can go back to normal, when Sanji was just angry at him for being an ungrateful fucking human and he didn't have this strange feeling in his chest.

Sanji rests his hands on the rim of the bath and hauls himself upwards until he's out of the water to his waist. If his hair covered his ear fins then maybe someone could have looked at him right now and assumed that he was normal. Hah, he's far from that. Zoro is still sound asleep and Sanji intends to keep it that way, all he needs to do is stretch across and grab that towel rail, then he can haul himself slowly out of the water and out of the room, clean out of the ship and back into the sea. He won't have to have any awkward conversations with Zoro or even look at him at all. Sanji glances down at him and remembers the smooth ripple of Zoro's abdominals as he took off his soaked shirt on the beach last night. He remembers the way Zoro's skin shone in the moonlight and how the cold made his nipples- oh for fuck's sake! Sanji shakes his head hard and hefts himself forward. His fingers just snag the towel rail and he manages to get a grip on it. He adjusts the hand still on the rim of the bathtub and then shifts his weight to the towel rail.

The towel rail breaks from the wall with a loud bang, sending Sanji fin over ass onto the floor and because the universe hates him, flipped onto his back in Zoro's lap.

Even Zoro isn't a deep enough sleeper to sleep through that.

"Uh. Hi?" Sanji chokes out, mortification colouring his skin.

"Morning to you too." Zoro responds, yawning wide enough to crack his jaw and shifting his legs under Sanji's back slightly.

"'f you wanted to get out you coulda woken me." Zoro grumbles, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

"I didn't want to." Sanji replies petulantly as he scrambles out of Zoro's lap in embarrassment.

"Aw, sweet. I wouldn't have minded." Zoro says with an air of teasing and a smirk on his lips.

"Well maybe I wasn't thinking about you. Maybe I find every conversation with you so painful and stupid that it lowers my IQ and I didn't want that to happen any more." Sanji bites back, curling his tail under him so that he can sit up to a proper height and glare at Zoro.

"I didn't know IQ could go into negative numbers." Zoro retorts with a full grin.

"It's rude to talk about yourself so much seaweed brain." Sanji snaps back. He expects Zoro to argue back, to bait him and to snarl but instead Zoro just laughs. It's brilliant and bright and that tight swirling feeling is back in Sanji's chest again. He finds himself watching Zoro's mouth as he laughs, watches how his lips move and-

Sanji turns his head away sharply and moves towards the bathroom door. He pulls himself up onto his tail and wrenches the door open. Before he can drag himself through though there is a pair of warm arms around him, one under his tail and the other under his arms.

"HEY! PUT ME DOWN! I DON'T NEED YOUR HELP!" Sanji rails furiously.

"Never said you did, but it'd be a dick move to make you drag yourself out when I can help just as easily." Zoro responds

Sanji has a million things to say to this, he's sure he does. Only... only Zoro's holding him in such a way that his breath is rippling the thin membrane of Sanji's ear fin. Zoro's talking now about something stupid, something about the ship and where they're going and just... Sanji tilts his head ever so slightly and now when Zoro enunciates especially clearly his lips just brush against Sanji's fin. The breath catches in Sanji's throat and his spine goes stiff.

Zoro places him softly on the deck and Sanji instantly misses the accidental brush of Zoro's lips on him. Of course he immediately berates himself for it but it doesn't remove the feeling at all.

"Hey, are you ok? You've barely said anything and that's not like you." Zoro frowns leaning over him and kneeling on either side of Sanji's tail.

"I..." Is about all Sanji can manage.

Zoro frowns and squints at him, leaning forward more so that he can look closely at Sanji, his hips shifting closer to Sanji's tail.

"You didn't fracture your ribs again yesterday did you?" Zoro questions, his eyes dropping to Sanji's side. One too warm hand comes up and touches along Sanji's ribs. Nerve endings flash and flare signals inside Sanji's head and he hisses on instinct. In the opposite of what Sanji wants him to do Zoro snatches his hand back.

"Shit, sorry. I'll get Chopper if it hurts. You said you were fine, did he miss anywhere?" Zoro asks and runs a hand along the muscles of Sanji's tail. The merman lets out a startled yip and Zoro's hand, thick and hot, stops where it is. Zoro is looking down at Sanji's tail.

"You know, since I've met you I've wondered something." Zoro says, seemingly out of the blue. Sanji's tongue isn't responding inside his mouth and it only gets worse as Zoro moves his thumb, dark eyes watching Sanji carefully as the blush spreads from his ear fins all the way across his cheeks.

"You're not exactly human down here, and I know how fish fuck but how do mer people like you fuck? Or... have I got my hand on some kind of hidden dick of yours here? Or perhaps I was right when I first met you, perhaps you've not got a dick at all, maybe you've got something else going on down here." Zoro says, his voice deep and gravelled as he rubs a thumb along the scales of Sanji's tail.

His hands are distracting but his words are enough to get Sanji's brain into gear. Rage snaps through him quick as lightning and his tail snaps itself taut around Zoro's midsection and flings him into a wall. He hauls himself up onto the railing of the ship and glares ice at Zoro.

"This whole thing was just a blip. Next time I see you marimo you'll be drowning under the sea at my hands. Mark my words I'll kill you." Sanji snarls and hurls himself into the sea.

The cold washes over Sanji as he dives. Sanji tries to focus on that rather than the itch under his skin from all of the places where Zoro touched him. He forces himself to remember Zoro's words, his last little taunt and suddenly the idea of dragging Zoro down deep and dark into the sea and watching his lungs crush in on themselves is incredibly satisfying.


	4. Chapter 4

Zoro was not by nature a particularly horny guy. He's never drooled over people in bars, he's never owned porn magazines and never been obsessed with jerking off. Not that he doesn't do it but it's not something that's ever taken up a large portion of his mind.

With this in mind it's pretty unusual to find Roronoa Zoro, future world's greatest swordsman leaning over the edge of the ship, staring into the sea and furiously wondering how mermen have sex. It's so bad that he's contemplating asking someone on an island if they know.

Sanji perhaps didn't approve of his indelicate questioning in that nature but Zoro fucking knows that he wasn't imagining that look in the blonde's eyes. Well, the look in his eyes before he stuck his foot in it and pissed the blonde off enough to make him revert to threats of drowning.

Zoro bites his lip. He hadn't seen any kind of hard on going on there, and Sanji doesn't wear clothes. So... is it like... internal or something? Does his junk just come out to play when it's needed? Zoro shifts against the railing of the ship, Sanji's theoretical junk isn't the only thing that wants to play right now, he's got problems of his own. Again. For about the millionth time since he met the blonde Zoro heads below deck to sort out a problem that comes accompanied by mental imagery of sinuous abs, a long thick tail and dangerously blue eyes.

___

Sanji sinks teeth like razors into the jugular of the sea king. The thing thrashes, its giraffe neck and shark tail working double time to fend off it's furious attacker. Innocent is not a word one would usually use to describe monsters like sea kings but the giraffe-shark is hardly the cause of Sanji's current frustration. The blonde is looking for a brawl to vent off steam and a sea king is about the only thing these days that can put up that level of fight.

That and Zoro.

Oh the ways that Zoro has fought him in the past... Thick blunt fingers clawing at Sanji's skin, seeking purchase and gripping hard. The way Zoro uses all of himself to fight, he kicks with his legs but he uses his mouth too. Sanji remembers the feel of Zoro's teeth on his nipple and the way Zoro had changed from biting at him to that slow sensous lick and-

Sanji snarls and lashes his tail out, smacking it into the body of the giraffe-shark and sending it hurtling into a spire of rock.

Or the way that Zoro fights dirty, he'd put up a good fight right about now. Like the time that he'd pressed their mouths together and forced air through Sanji's gills to fend him off. What if things had gone differently? What if instead of leaving when Zoro was riling him before Sanji had just pinned the fucker to the deck and-

Hah. And what?

Zoro is human and Sanji is... is. Sanji isn't anything.

He just can't do what he wants because it's simply not possible. He's just taunting himself to think otherwise.

Sanji lets himself sink down to the sea floor whilst the giraffe-shark bleeds out into the water behind him. He curls his tail up under himself and hates himself for everything. He had just wanted some revenge and then... then things had to get fucking complicated. He buries his face in his hands and tries not to think about Zoro's jawline, or his smile, or the way his lips had brushed Sanji's ear fins.

Sanji is not following the Merry, he's not. It's just that fish like to gather under ships for the shade and the protection, Sanji happens to eat fish, so he's just travelling by a food source that's moving. That's all. It seems that the navigator of the ship is the beautiful redhead that Sanji had seen before and good god is she good. She reads the log pose like no one Sanji has ever seen. Not that he needs one of course. nevertheless no matter what it seems that Zoro's crew get into more trouble than Sanji had ever thought possible, the number of times they haul ass away from islands is thoroughly stupid and Sanji would smack anyone for saying that he's jealous when he lurks out of sight and watches the crew dismount onto another island and walk off inland to have an adventure that Sanji can't have with his tail instead of legs.

He's not jealous, he's not.

Despite his earlier threats Sanji hasn't managed to bring himself to drag Zoro into the ocean and drown him, which rather makes his other excuse to follow their ship a rather weak one. He's missed hundreds of opportunities for revenge and he's sure that Zoro has seen him more than a few times too. This however is one island that Sanji is not keen to get onto. Cold blooded though he is, Sanji draws the line at snow.

Always checking back on the ship at regular bases Sanji swims the coastline and, to his mortification, it's some time before he notices that Zoro is following him along it. Sanji peeks out of the water and sees Zoro looking right at him, his dark eyes boring into Sanji and making his insides squirm. Sanji can't help but follow and when Zoro turns away from the sea it's to walk along a river inlet to the island. Sanji decides to gather up his courage and speak, remembering that he's following Zoro so that he can kill him.

"You know I can drown you in a river just as well as I can in the sea! Why don't you come a little closer?" Sanji calls out, his head and shoulders above the water.

"Oh, so you can talk? I thought maybe you'd lost your voice since I last saw you, little mermaid." Zoro smirks at him and walks closer to the river.

The river finishes in at a waterfall which is surrounded by high rocks. He supposes that if Zoro wanted to pick somewhere by water to have a confrontation with Sanji but be able to get somewhere fast that Sanji couldn't follow then this would be the place. Zoro, ever surprising though, doesn't try to bait Sanji any more, he doesn't even point out that Sanji had no good comeback for that, he'd just floated there with his mouth open in mute outrage. What Zoro does do instead is take off his shoes, his bare toes then dipping into the water, sending little ripples across the surface that Sanji can feel in his gills.

"What on earth do you think you're doing?" Sanji asks flatly, his eyes widening still further when Zoro peels his shirt off in a ripple of tan flesh that makes Sanji's mouth water. Sanji ducks down under the water so just his eyes are visible, hoping that Zoro won't see the blush on his face.

"Training." Zoro answers easily and strides into the water.

Almost right away the ground below Zoro's feet falls away and he's out of his depth. Sanji falls beneath the surface and stares up at Zoro's body. He swims closer and hovers just an inch or two from Zoro's skin. He reaches out and wraps his arms around Zoro's waist, slow and secure. Zoro's hands come to rest on his forearms, not hard, just... resting there. Sanji flicks the tip of his tail and pulls Zoro just under the water, he could probably still get his face above the waterline if he strained his neck and tilted his head back. Instead though Zoro ducks his head under the water fully and blinks a few times before looking at Sanji under the water.

"I could drown you right now." Sanji says, keeping Zoro just where he is.

Zoro doesn't say anything, he can't, he's underwater and he rather foolishly never evolved the capability to talk underwater. Instead he just looks at Sanji. He doesn't fight him, he doesn't attack, he just looks at him.

Without Zoro fighting this whole thing is a little weird, it's like he's just embracing Zoro underwater. Zoro leans down a little more, his hands running up Sanji's bare arms. His face is right in front of Sanji's now, his hands tracing up to Sanji's jaw. He leans in and presses his lips against Sanji's. Sanji draws in a startled breath, expecting Zoro to force air through his gills again or something but instead Zoro doesn't, he just stays where he is.

"What the fuck was that?" Sanji demands, releasing Zoro in shock. Zoro hovers there under the surface for a moment or two, just looking at Sanji. There's no smug grin or 'gotcha' expression, he just looks at him. After a second or two, or perhaps a lifetime, Zoro kicks under the water and pushes himself back up to the surface.

Sanji follows and when he too breaches the surface he makes the same demand again.

"It's called a kiss." Zoro answers with a shrug. Then, as if nothing happened, Zoro turns and swims towards the waterfall.

"I know it was a kiss, why did you do it?!" Sanji snaps, following Zoro easily. No one swims faster than him, certainly not a human of all things.

"'cause I wanted to." Zoro replies and hauls himself out of the water and onto the rocks by the waterfall. His back is getting splashed and Sanji can't believe that Zoro is managing to stay upright under that.

"Why?" Sanji asks again, feeling numb.

Zoro leans forward out of the waterfall and grins down at Sanji, that's an expression that Sanji is a little more familiar with. The world doesn't feel so odd when Zoro is smirking at him like that, now he feels the need to drown Zoro again. Things are back on familiar currents once more.

"Quit asking me stupid questions and go on a date with me." Zoro says with a smile, his dark eyes sparkling.

Sanji floats there in numb shock and blinks at Zoro, his mouth not able to come up with words. Zoro kissed him and now he's asking Sanji on a date? No one... no one has ever done either of those things before. Oh, oh shit... that had been Sanji's first kiss. His hands fly to his lips and he flushes red from nose to the tips of his ear fins. He stares at Zoro and realises that Zoro is still waiting for a response. Is Zoro making fun of him? Mocking him?

"Do you ask out all the guys who try to kill you?" Sanji retorts, turning his anxiety into fury.

Zoro actually laughs at that, a warm sounding thing that's far from a mocking laugh that Sanji's heard before from people. It reaches his eyes and makes him light up.

"Nah, just the ones I really like. So, how about it?" Zoro asks, leaning on his knee to smile at him.

"Fuck you." Sanji hisses out. Zoro has to be mocking him, everyone else does. He feels his ears flatten against his head in anger. Oh he remembers what people are like, fishmen, merpeople, humans, they're all as bad as each other.

"Heh, maybe afterwards, if I can find out how all your parts work. You're the first merman I've ever seen you know." Zoro laughs at him.

Sanji hisses in rage and dives under the surface. With one powerful flick of his tail he's halfway out of the river and with a second he's back out into the cold salt water of the sea. He shoots down to the cold dark sea bed and wraps his arms around himself. He curls up and buries his face into his tail and tries to force away the memory of Zoro's gentle kiss, of the feel of his hands cupping Sanji's face.

He hates himself, he really does. As much as he hates Zoro for mocking him like that he hates himself even worse for wanting it. He tries to imagine a world where Zoro was being serious, where he could be normal and Zoro would actually want him. Where lewd innuendo like that could be a promise of something to come rather than a cruel barb. Sanji's sob reverberates off of the rocks around him. His tears meld instantly with the seawater around him, so perhaps in a way Sanji could claim that he never cried about this, not really.


	5. Chapter 5

Maybe the watery bastard likes flowers. Should he give him flowers? Is that the kind of thing that he might like or would he think that it was some kind of insult? Sanji is certainly a temperamental kind of guy and Zoro wouldn't want to make things worse.

Still, he isn't just worried about the way that things blew up between him and Sanji before. He's also worried about the fact that he's not seen the idiot for some time, not since when he kissed him and asked him out. He has no idea why the blonde reacted so badly. He's mainly worried that he might not see him again. It's a big ocean after all and there's lots of places where a merman could hide if he wanted to, places that Zoro might never get to.

Needless to say, when there's an opportunity for him to dive below the surface looking for hidden treasure he's all up for it. If he stands a chance of running into Sanji anywhere it's under the water. He's up for it on that count alone, let alone the chance to explore a ship that fell out of the sky and plunged into the ocean. Being Nami's running boy for treasure hunting is hardly something he relishes but he'll put up with it for this.

When he's below the surface there's no blonde immediately apparent and he has to go investigate the inside of the fallen ship. His heart starts beating a million times faster when he catches the flash of blue scales. He swims into the room and stares at Sanji. He's never really seen him like this, both underwater and at the same level.

Sanji's body is long and graceful he's got no idea what kind of fish Sanji is meant to be but his tail is blue on the top with a blonde line running down the side. Or... more accurately Zoro supposes it's yellow considering as it's not hair, though it is the same shade as his hair. In the eerie light of the sunken wreck Sanji's skin glows and the way his dorsal fin flutters in the small currents makes Zoro's heart swell, amongst other things.

"GAH!" Sanji yelps, suddenly noticing them and speeding across and into the wall furthest from them in his alarm.

"Didn't mean to startle you." Zoro says through his underwater suit.

"You didn't startle me." Sanji snaps back automatically. He swims a little closer and peers at Zoro through the porthole in the suit.

"You look fucking ridiculous." Sanji points out flatly.

"Well, we can't all breathe underwater and look good doing it." Zoro responds airily.

"Psh, not like me." Sanji smirks and gives a little shimmy of his hips, showing off his long and enticing body.

"That was what I was getting at." Zoro points out.

The smile falls from Sanji's face and Zoro gets the distinct impression that he's said something really wrong.

Sanji scowls and swims quickly past Zoro, heading for the outside of the ship.

"Hey, wait up. What did I say?" Zoro pleads, only just grabbing his arm before he gets past completely.

"You might think you're funny, but you're not." Sanji hisses at him, pulling his hand back.

"I'm not... I'm not trying to be funny. I don't even get what I'm doing wrong here." Zoro says honestly, trying to have a heart to heart with the other guy even though he's in a barrel with a window shoved into it.

"Why should I believe you?" Sanji says skeptically, his eyes narrowing. Zoro can actually see both of them underwater, Sanji's hair floats a little in the currents and he can just catch a glimpse of his hidden eye. He presses down the urge to reach out and brush that hair aside so that he can get more of this strange, addicting merman.

"Cause..." Zoro tries. He wants to come up with something smooth, but Sanji probably wouldn't buy smooth, it'd probably make him suspicious. So honesty is the way to go there.

"Cause I'm an idiot. It's part of my nature I guess. Maybe I've done something to get your fins in a twist or something, put my foot in some mer-person taboo or whatever but... I'm not being a dick here." he says straightforwardly.

Sanji just floats there for a moment and watches him, eventually straightening up so that he's upright like Zoro is, rather than horizontal and about to swim off at any second. Pointy teeth chew on a perfect pair of lips and Zoro struggles to keep eye contact with Sanji. Eventually the blonde speaks.

"What's a dick?" Sanji asks, tilting his head curiously, his ear-fins fluttering with curiosity.

"Uh- it's- um..." Zoro stammers, suddenly going red faced. How the hell is he going to explain human junk to a merman?

"Yes?" Sanji asks innocently, leaning a little more into Zoro's space to do it.

"Well, it's the human equivalent of... uh... whatever it is that you..." he tries desperately.

Sanji snorts and holds his stomach with one hand as laughter ripples out of him, the other he leans on the top of Zoro's barrel diving suit for stability.

"Ahahahahaaa... oh man, I'm just fucking with you kelp brain. I know what a dick is." Sanji laughs, wiping at his eyes.

"I should have just said you. You're a dick." Zoro responds, shoving Sanji in the side.

"Heh, sometimes." Sanji admits with a broad grin. He swishes his tail and settles himself on a table, sat on his butt and leaning back on his hands to look at Zoro. His collar bones jut out temptingly and Zoro wants to bite them, he would too if it wasn't for this stupid suit in the way.

"You were seriously asking me out then?" Sanji asks, his voice a little more serious as he watches Zoro keenly.

"Yeah, of course." Zoro nods.

Sanji gets a slightly wistful smile on his face for a moment and Zoro spots his ear fins colouring slightly. Sanji actually breaks eye contact a little, looking off to the side and trying to force down the smile on his face until it's just a little thing tugging at the corner of his mouth. He seems to think something else though because the smile fades and his ear fins droop slightly.

"That's nice but... well. I don't really see any place that you and I could go out to eat that'd suit us both." Sanji says quietly.

"I'm not fussy! Anywhere you want!" Zoro responds quickly and instantly realises that he'd sounded way too eager. Sanji smirks at him for that but doesn't tease him for it.

"I meant that if we go to a place on land it's a little hard for me to get around and frankly there are more than a few places where I'm more likely to end up as the food rather than a diner. You also lack the ability to breathe underwater so it's not like we can just eat down here either. It won't work." Sanji says and Zoro knows that he's not imagining the disappointed note in his voice, as if Sanji doesn't want to say what he is but he feels someone has to.

"What about the beach?" Zoro asks, a bright idea coming to him like a flash of lightning.

"What about the beach, idiot?" Sanji sighs, rolling his eyes.

"We could eat there. You could stay in the sea and I'll stay on the beach. We'll bring our own food and eat together and... I dunno, watch the sun set or some other romantic bullshit like that. I don't know." Zoro grumbles, trailing off in embarrassment. This isn't like him but... well, dammit he really wants that date with Sanji.

"You really want this, huh?" Sanji asks softly. Zoro's too mortified to speak without his voice going weird so he just nods and hopes that Sanji can't see how red faced he is. He'd been so confident earlier but now that it's more than just flirting, now that this is emotionally real... it's harder to do.

Sanji sighs like he's making a mistake and scratches the back of his head.

"I guess... I guess one date wouldn't hurt. Next time you come to an island with a beach and you wanna do this then... then it's a date. Just let me know." Sanji smiles.

Zoro beams with glee and Sanji grins too, like it's infectious. Sanji pushes himself off of the table and swims effortlessly close to Zoro. He presses a kiss to the glass and smiles at him again before swimming off out of the ship and back into the open sea.

"Hey Zoro, you found anything yet?" Luffy yells for him from the other end of the ship.

"I think I have." Zoro mumbles happily with a dopey smile on his face.


	6. Chapter 6

Zoro considers asking Nami what mer-people eat but he wisely decides against it, it was fishmen that took over her island, not mermen and it's a sore subject for her in any case. The next obvious choice is Chopper, he doesn't know their new doctor all that well but... he could ask. If anything it might mean that Chopper won't get an idea as to why he's asking, unlike the rest of the crew who regularly ask him about Sanji. Usopp is worried that Zoro's going to stray too close to the sea and get drowned, Luffy thinks that he's cool and Nami... Zoro doesn't know what Nami thinks. She asks needling little questions, trying to trick information about Sanji out of him and he doesn't know why. Every time that she manages it though she gets this catlike smile that makes Zoro feel uneasy.

"Mer-people? I don't know an awful lot about them, we never had them near our island, it's too cold really. I've only seen Sanji and all I did was bandage him up but... I do have some books somewhere." Chopper answers, turning to his medical bookcase and rifling through it, trying to find a title that he remembers.

"Why do you want to know anyway? Hm, no it's not this book... was it...?" Chopper asks and then trails off, mumbling to himself as he flicks through books, returning them back into his collection as each fails to give him what he's looking for.

"...Curiosity?" Zoro ventures, unsure in his lie.

"Oh! Here it is. There's not much information sadly, but if you're interested I can look out for books on the subject whenever we come across a book store." Chopper beams, handing Zoro the book over, thankfully seeming to forget his question.

Zoro looks over the pages that Chopper has left out for him. The books seems primarily interested in defining the difference between mer-people and fishmen, the following pages listing common ailments, their cures and stressing that the cures for each are different depending on the species.

He starts to read then and there with Chopper nearby.

" _It is exceedingly easy to differentiate between the two species. Mer-people always have tails and no visible gills, their water filtration system is a series of gills that operate at a dermal level, only visible under a microscope. It is the almost shark-like texture of the skin of these creatures which enables them to move through the water with such speed. In addition, the ability for their skin and gills to filter water in this way provides them with an unlimited supply of oxygen, allowing for direct transfer to the muscles which explains their great speed and efficiency. Mer-people are also distinct in that their fish features end at the waist, with the occasional exception in teeth and adapted eyes._

_Fishmen on the other hand almost always have legs, there have been occasional exceptions with octopus and cuttlefish based fishmen, but this seems to be because their tentacles operate as legs. Fishmen all have gills, the specifications of which vary depending on the fish who's attributes they take after. Fins, scales and other fish like features are common and highly variable._

_Reproduction between the two species is possible, fishmen are entirely human in their reproductive qualities whereas mer-people have typical fish reproductive system. Live births have been known for mer-people, but only in those who have tails resembling sharks and other fish who have live births instead of eggs._

_Offspring of a mixed union will be either mer-person or fishman, interbreeding does not result in a hybrid species which is highly unusual for the animal kingdom. Similarly interbreeding with humans rarely leads to live offspring but when it does the result is always one species or the other, not a hybrid."_

"Oi, Chopper, this book can't be right." Zoro frowns, waving it at Chopper.

"How do you mean?" Chopper asks, taking it back off of Zoro.

"The telling the difference between the species thing, it's wrong." He protests. His mind can't help but focus on Sanji's ear fins and the way they go red when he's flustered. He sees Sanji's gills and how they move as he breathes. He can practically feel Sanji's strong muscled tail under his hands but apparently he shouldn't have all three. How can that be?

"Hm? No, I think that's a pretty standard difference and they're very different looking, but I guess there might be variations. Although I think that there's inaccuracies with the explanation of fishman reproduction, I'm sure it's more complicated than it makes it out to be. Other than that it's accurate to my knowledge. I can always check any new books that I find but it seems right to me." Chopper answers. The little doctor scrutinises Zoro, clearly trying to work out why he's so fascinated, which is Zoro's cue to leave. He doesn't want to answer any awkward questions like, why he wants to know about merman junk or whether or not humans can bone them.

He walks off feeling far more confused than when he went in there. The book is clearly wrong and so he can't tell what other information that it gave him might be wrong too. Can mer-people and humans even have sex? He doesn't care if he and Sanji can breed, there are far more gender related problems there than species related, he just wants to know that the two of them can fuck. The number of times he's imagined just what Sanji's face would look like during sex, how red he'd go, how much his ear fins would flutter.

Great, now he's hard again. He sits down at the edge of the ship and waits for it to go away whilst keeping an eye out for Sanji. He can't see him so he supposes that he's not around at all.

Oh well, he supposes that he can just find out about Sanji's junk the fun hands-on kind of way. He'll have an opportunity too, the next island that they stop at he gets to take Sanji on a date. Which isn't to say that he's planning on getting his hands in Sanji's metaphorical pants that night, but if he plays his cards right and doesn't piss Sanji off then he might get a second date and then maybe a third and then who knows?

He grins stupidly out at the ocean. He should start planning what he's going to do.

He walks along the beach with his backpack on and his nicest shirt tucked into his fanciest trousers. He's not bothered with shoes because he'll just end up scuffing them with sand or ruining them in the water. Still, he wishes that he'd been able to do his tie up, he has a suspicion that Sanji would have liked him in a tie. As it was his nervous hands hadn't been able to manage it and he'd abandoned it in his bunk, not that he could really do them up when he wasn't nervous either, he's never been great at that stuff.

Eventually he figures that he's far enough away from the ship that his nakama can't spy on him and so he sits down at the waters edge and waits for Sanji to show up. After about half an hour a familiar blonde head pops up above the waves and, with a flick of his tail above the water, Sanji comes closer. He pulls himself onto the shore until the water is just lapping at his hips. He looks both pissed off and amused.

"You were supposed to tell me when you wanted to have our date, not just show up." Sanji berates him, though he doesn't sound too mad as he looks at the little table that Zoro had set up whilst he was waiting.

He'd set out sake and cups and a huge box of sushi, though the lid is still closed on that to protect against any gutsy seagulls around.

"Sorry." Zoro shrugs and offers Sanji a filled cup. The blonde grins and takes it off of him, drinking fast enough to impress Zoro with his alcohol tolerance but slow enough to savour the taste.

"This is good shit." Sanji says afterwards, picking up the bottle to read it.

"It's my kind of booze." He answers with a shrug and drinks as well.

"I got you dinner." He adds, gesturing to the box. Sanji makes a nose of interest and sits up, he leans over on one arm and opens the box with his other hand. Inside are rows upon rows of all the different kinds of sushi Zoro could find and afford. He cringes at thinking how much of his money that he burnt through paying for this date but what can he say, he really wants it.

"Did you ever! How many people are you planning on feeding here kelp-head?" Sanji asks, eyes wide as he takes in the opened box of sushi.

"I just... wanted to make sure there was enough stuff there that you'd find something that you like." he mutters, ducking his head. He can feel his cheeks flushing and he feels like a dumb schoolboy. As much as he wants to make out with Sanji and get his hands all over his frankly gorgeous body he wants the merman to actually like him even more than that. God, when did he become such a sap?

"What if I didn't like sushi?" Sanji asks.

Zoro's head snaps up and his eyes widen in panic. SHIT! He'd spent so much time ensuring that he had a wide enough range of food in there, meat, fish, vegetarian, sweet, savoury, the works. He'd not even had time to consider the possibility that Sanji might not like any of it because he might not like any kind of sushi. When he turns to look at Sanji in horror though the blond just grins wide at him, pointy teeth and all, and pops a salmon roll in his mouth.

"You're an idiot, but you're a lucky idiot." Sanji grins at him and eats some more.

"Fuck you." Zoro mutters, embarrassed as all hell, and eats to distract himself.

"You're kind of cute when you're stupid, lucky for you." Sanji laughs at him.

"I have no idea if I should be flattered or not." Zoro deadpans, leading only to the merman laughing louder at him. Fed up of being mocked he flings his tuna roll at the blonde. To his surprise Sanji snaps to attention and snatches the thing right out of the air into his mouth, Sanji's eyes return to normal pretty quick but Zoro had seen the pupils blow wide and track the path of his food like a sniper on a mark. He supposes that if Sanji eats fish, which he seems to, then he must catch them himself, likely with his hands or his mouth. In many ways Sanji is very  _very_ different from him.

The blonde clearly realises the same thing just at the same time that Sanji does. His skin pales a little and his ear fins flatten. In worry? Anger? Surprise? Zoro has no idea.

"That was pretty impressive blondie, think you can do it again?" Zoro challenges and instantly Sanji brightens, his ear fins perking back up again and flicking as Sanji's face takes on an arrogant expression.

"Of course I can, I've got way faster reflexes than a Neanderthal like you!" The merman boasts.

The two of them end up throwing food at each other to catch. Sanji makes it every time, even with the way larger and less stable hand rolls which turned out to be more impressive as he caught that in two bites before it came anywhere close to the beach. Zoro decides to call the game off though when Sanji makes him eat one that he missed, sand and all.

Before too long the pair of them are sprawled out on the beach, side by side with full bellies. The sushi has long since been set to the side after Zoro had promised until he was blue in the face that it would be eaten back on the ship. Frankly he'd be lucky to get it in the kitchen before it all ended up in Luffy's maw.

"Does it hurt?" Zoro asks, staring up at the dark sky and the small stars shining up there.

"What? And I swear if this is a cheesy pick up line I WILL go back to trying to drown you." Sanji warns him.

"No, I mean lying on your back like that. You've got that dorsal fin and all, doesn't it get squashed?" Zoro explains, rolling on his side to look at the blonde.

"Nah, it folds up. It'd be uncomfortable on something really hard I guess, but sand is ok. See, it's fine." Sanji explains, rolling over onto his front. As he does so his dorsal fin flicks up, the harder cartilage bridging the gaps between the thinner and almost translucent blue skin between them.

He reaches out to touch it and finds that the skin there is smooth and slightly slick and feels far stronger than it looks. Part of him is fascinated by how Sanji is put together. This must connect with his spine somehow but he can't even being to imagine how. What does his skeleton look like? How far do all of his joints bend? He's fascinating.

He can't quite see the merman's face from this angle but he suspects that he's a little flushed because there is a hint of redness creeping down the back of his neck that Zoro can make out.

"Is this ok?" He asks carefully, wary of overstepping his boundaries.

"It's- yeah. It feels nice." Sanji says a little thickly, as if he's trying to control the tone of his voice. Zoro grins and runs his fingers along the ridge of Sanji's dorsal fin, down to where it meets his spine.

"I don't- don't get why you're so fascinated. 's nothing that you haven't got your hands on before." the blonde points out and if Zoro isn't mistaken he sounds a little breathy and excited as he talks.

"Yeah, but it's different when you're not trying to drown me." he points out, running his finger up Sanji's back now and detouring here and there to touch the little speckles of blue colour across the blonde's otherwise pale human skin.

"If you're nostalgic for me trying to drown you I can oblige you." Sanji says, pushing himself up with his arms and rolling over so that he's almost kneeling with his tail fin. His eyes are dark and his skin is indeed red.

Zoro forgets that he's supposed to be coming up with an answer for that because he's too focused with leaning in and kissing the blonde. Sanji melts against him right away, throwing his arms around Zoro's neck and pressing as much of himself against Zoro as possible. His back and tail bend easily to let him do it but the very angle of it makes Zoro's back twinge in sympathy, he couldn't flex like that.

The blonde shoves him and topples him over onto his back. Zoro would like to say that he went gracefully but the fact of the matter is that as Sanji pushes him backwards he flails and his legs kick out in the air, his bare right foot splashing the sea noisily.

Sanji doesn't seem to care though as his heavy body presses Zoro into the sand. He's all muscle and actually outside of the water his body weighs at least as much as Zoro's if not slightly more. Zoro doesn't care, the pressure against his body feels amazing.

Sanji pulls back and for a moment Zoro worries that he's changed his mind again, but instead Sanji just ducks down and kisses at Zoro's throat. The swordsman whines and tips his head back as far as he can.

"You're stupidly trusting you know, my teeth are more than sharp enough to rip your jugular out if I wanted to." Sanji rumbles, his sharp teeth grazing the column of Zoro's throat. The swordsman can't help the flare of excitement that runs through him or the way that his hands tighten on Sanji's waist and his heart skips a beat.

Sanji grins against his skin and instead of biting him he presses a kiss to Zoro's throat and then nibbles ever so gently at his ear, seeming to toy with the piercings there as he runs his tongue over them.

"Mmhn, Sanji..." Zoro mumbles, kissing the blonde back along the jaw. He has to restrain himself and avoid his gills, he doesn't know how sensitive or delicate the things are and he doesn't want to ruin the mood by making the blonde get into a coughing fit. He is irrepressibly curious though and restrains himself by promising to find out what he can do to them another time.

Sanji pulls Zoro's hair back and kisses him again, holding him in place. It occurs to Zoro that he's not sure which of the two of them is stronger in terms of pure strength. The two of them had certainly been at a stalemate when it came to the blonde trying to drown him, but what about now? Could he get out of Sanji's grip if he wanted to or is the blonde the one calling the shots here? The thought of Sanji's strength makes Zoro's hips buck and the friction between the two of them makes Zoro groan.

The blonde pulls back sharply, leaning up to look down at Zoro's more than slightly tented trousers. For one glorious moment Zoro thinks that Sanji is going to undo his belt and start exploring.

"I can't- I can't do this, I have to go." Sanji blurts out suddenly, dashing Zoro's hopes.

"Wait, what? No! Don't go!" Zoro begs, but the blonde is already pushing away from him and hauling himself back into the water. He grabs Sanji's hand but the merman's water slick skin slips right through his grasp.

"I didn't mean it, I'm not expecting you to- please don't go. We don't have to... we can just stay here and talk, I promise." Zoro insists, following Sanji out into the sea. He shouldn't have let things go so fast, the other man was wary enough about going on a date with him so of course this was going to be too quick. Sure, it had been Sanji that'd made most of the moves there, but still!

Sanji halts, up to his ribs in water as Zoro is thigh deep. He turns to look back at Zoro, eyes wide and searching.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to freak you out." Zoro insists, holding his hands up and staying where he is.

"It's- this isn't going to work." Sanji says unevenly, running a hand through his hair and glancing away from Zoro.

"What? No. Look, I'm sorry, really I am. Just give me another chance, tell me what I did wrong, I didn't mean to upset you." Zoro apologises. Shit, he's really bad at interacting with Sanji, he always gets the feeling that he's sticking his dumb foot in some cultural shit he doesn't get. He must be for how Sanji reacts to him.

"Stop saying sorry!" Sanji barks at him, glaring at the swordsman hotly.

Zoro opens his mouth to apologises again but catches himself.

"You've not done anything, it's just this isn't going to work. It can't. You need- just find some nice human, someone who can actually be with you and doesn't keep swimming off on you at the slightest thing." Sanji insists.

Zoro shakes his head and swims closer, he's out of his depth now, his bare feet kicking in the water to keep him afloat. When a wave rolls under them and the water level dips his feel occasionally brushes sand. He reaches out and takes hold of Sanji's shoulders.

"I don't want that, I want you." He insists.

Sanji bites his lip and then leans forward, kissing Zoro hard. When he pulls away he leans his forehead against Zoro's the two of them bobbing in the dark sea.

"I can't. I really want to but..." Sanji says shaking his head and letting Zoro go, pushing him away slightly.

"Just forget me, ok?" Sanji calls and then dives straight down under the water, his blue and yellow tail fin flicking up over the surface and then nothing.

"SANJI!" Zoro yells in alarm. He swims over to the spot where Sanji dived but he's not there anymore. He ducks under the surface himself and blinks his eyes open, ignoring the painful sting of salt. It's too dark though, he can't see shit. He couldn't see Sanji if he was six inches from his face.

He resurfaces, breaking the surface with a gasp.

"Sanji! Come back!" He calls out. Sanji can't be out of earshot already.

He opens his mouth to yell again but a wave breaks right against his head, shoving water into his mouth and making him cough and gag. He flails to stay upright and yells Sanji's name again, his voice horse from the sea salt. He stares around for any sign of the blonde but it's so dark that he can't even see where the sea ends and the night sky begins. He could get dragged out and die out here. The instinctual flash of fear makes him turn back for the beach and swim to shore, he'd been pulled out farther than he realised. As soon as he's on the sand he resumes calling out for Sanji, but hours pass and the merman doesn't return. He sits there until the sun rises, determined to use the light to see as far as he can. If Sanji is there he's not going to just go because he can't see him in the dark.

When the sun rises though there isn't a trace of Sanji at all, there was no sign that he was even there before. Zoro had forgotten to move the sushi and sake out of the way of the incoming tide and they washed away at some point in the night. It's as if their date never even happened.

"Zoro? There you are! We've been looking for you for hours! You didn't come back to the ship last night, did you get your dumb ass lost or..." Nami trails off, she clearly sees something in his face because she stops dead and a terrified look fills her face.

"What's wrong?" She asks urgently.

"He's gone." Zoro answers, his voice hoarse from shouting all night.

"What? Who?" Nami asks with a frown, looking around them.

"Sanji. We... we were on a date and I think I fucked up. He just left." Zoro says, everything spilling out of him. He shudders in the cold and leans forward, his hands clasping around his ankles as he stares down at the sand.

"He's bailed on you loads of times hasn't he? He's a flighty guy." Nami says and crouches down next to him.

"No, he sounded like he meant it. He told me to forget him, to find someone else." Zoro confesses. He doesn't mean to, this shit should be private but right now he feels like he's in a million pieces and he doesn't know what to do or think.

"And you've been here all night?" Nami asks him, wrapping her arm around his shoulder.

Zoro nods mutely.

"Why? You're FREEZING Zoro, you'll catch your death out here." she scolds him.

"I thought he might come back." he answers in a small voice, leaning against Nami's side. His eyes scan the horizon again but as usual there isn't a sign of Sanji at all. He's probably hundreds of miles away by now. He doubts that he'll ever see him again, not after what Sanji said. He doesn't even know what he did that was so wrong as to make Sanji leave like that. Sure things were moving a little fast but surely that wasn't just it right?

"Come on, you need to get back to the ship. If I ever see that blue bastard again I'm gonna kick his tail for this. Come on, up." The navigator orders him, pulling him to his feet and wrapping her arm around his chest, under each armpit and half walking, half supporting him all the way back to the ship.

 


	7. Chapter 7

"Give up you useless fuck." Sanji hisses to himself, hiding behind a rock in the dark. He doesn't need to look around, he can hear Zoro calling his name just fine from where he is. His stupid conscience won't let him just leave Zoro there, but he can't bear to go back.

That's not entirely true, he wants to go back so so badly.

Kissing Zoro and just being all over him all felt so great, Zoro had touched his body like no one else ever had, with reverence instead of distain or violence.

Why did he have to meet the stupid kelp haired bastard in the first place? Or if he had to meet him then why couldn't he have just succeeded in drowning him? Why did it have to be this?

"SANJI! COME BACK! WHATEVER I DID I'M SORRY!" Zoro yells out into the sea.

Sanji winces and sinks lower in the water, his ear fins wilting with unhappiness. Why the hell is Zoro trying so hard to get him back? It can't just be because his dick got hard and he wanted to... well. He's sure it's not just that. But Zoro barely knows him, why is he putting so much effort into this?

He shakes his head and slides under the surface of the water. Zoro will find someone else, someone that can give him what he needs. His mind flashes back to Zoro saying that he doesn't want someone else, that he wants him. It's not an informed decision though, Zoro doesn't know his whole deal, he doesn't know what his deal is.

He hangs his head in misery, being under the waves only slightly muffles Zoro's shouting. Though he nearly jumps out of his skin when he sees Zoro wade into the water again, at least this time he's not swimming out of his depth in the dark again. All the same Sanji has to question what kind of moron gets into the ocean at dusk, that's when all the really dangerous fish come out.

As if to prove his point he spots the distinct shadow of a shark in the dark water, lazily cruising about, looking for food. Sanji narrows his eyes and sticks close to the sea bed as he swims a little closer to Zoro. He still stays well out of sight for his stupid human eyes, but close enough to protect him.

The idiot continues to splash about in the waves, yelling and drawing the attention of every undersea creature within half a mile, including the shark. It swims a little closer and Sanji spots that it's a mako shark. Not good, their attacks are almost always fatal to humans, they don't attack often but with Zoro tempting fate like this he's not happy leaving the idiot alone in the water with it. Sanji jets off towards it through the water, banking hard near it and swimming away again, sending a territorial shockwave of water at it. The shark however is undeterred and snaps in Sanji's direction. The blonde snarls, he is not in the mood to play nice with a shark right now and if this thing decides to tangle with him then it's going to end up as sushi.

Like... like Zoro's sushi. God, why had he ever agreed to a date with the bastard? He'd only gone and gotten himself more attached. The stupid idiot doesn't even know what's wrong with him. He hasn't commented on his ears or his teeth, nothing. If anything Zoro seemed to be delighted with every part of him that he touched. And he'd brought him dinner too, enough so that he'd be sure to have something. He wasn't dumb enough to ignore the large amount of vegetarian stuff there, clearly Zoro wasn't sure if he ate meat and-

Sanji reels to the side as the shark charges him and snaps at him. That's what he gets for getting distracted. He snaps his tail into the shark's underbelly and darts forward. He's faster than it of course and that puts him in the perfect position to get above the shark, stuff his hands into it's gills on either side and roll the fucker. Sanji cruises backwards belly up for a bit before letting the shark go. It floats upside down and catatonic, bleeding from its gills. It's the shark's own fault for going near Zoro. Speaking of he should get back to him. By the time he does the marimo ball is sat back on the beach, his arms crossed over his knees and staring out to the sea. He swears that he sees Zoro's eyes catch on him and so he ducks back under the surface so Zoro can't see him. When he next dares to peek up he sees that Zoro is scanning another bit of the sea, ignorant to Sanji's location.

He doesn't know if it's masochism or weakness that keeps him there all night and into the morning but as soon as he checks above the surface and sees that Zoro is gone he heads back out into open water. It takes him several days of high speed swimming but he makes it to fishman island. He waits until the unsociable hours of the morning before swimming through the fishman district. Even so a few people see him and yell out to him but thankfully he's faster than them.

He goes in through the front entrance to fishman island and quickly snags himself a bubble coral so that he doesn't have to drag himself across the floor like a chump. It's still dark when he gets there so he steals an oversized hoodie from someone's washing line and throws it on himself, pulling it down as low as it will go and flicking the hood well over his face. He swims to his destination and sits down on the ground, waiting for the person he came all this way to see to show up.

When she does she recognises him right away and lets him inside, shutting the door behind both of them.

"I saw you coming, you can take that off you know." She says, looking down at him with dark eyeliner rimmed eyes.

Sanji reluctantly takes his stolen clothes off and floats there in his bubble and looks up at the great madam Shyarly.

"I've not seen you in years Sanji." She says with a smile, leaning down to get a look at him. Her great breasts bulge as she leans over to look at him. Being a shark mermaid makes her far bigger than him, but proportionally her breasts would be big on anyone. It's a little hard to keep his focus.

"I wish I could say it's good to be back, but people still suck." Sanji mutters, looking down at the floor.

"I know that you're coming here to ask me to make you into something that you're not, but I'll tell you what I told you the first ten times that you were here. I don't have that power, I'm just a seer." Shyarly sighs, taking a long draw of her pipe as she does so.

"Bullshit, even if you can't do it you must be able to know somewhere that can. Anyway this time it's a different request, I need to be human." He insists, looking up at her firmly. Shyarly respects strength but she also hates people lying to her or being manipulative, it's a hard line to navigate.

"And why do you want to be human of all things?" she asks, leaning back in her giant chair. Her eyes feel like they see straight through Sanji and he has to remind himself of her relationship to Arlong and he chooses his words carefully.

"I... met someone." He answers softly.

"What does that have to do with being human?" Shyarly presses, her eyes narrowing.

"He's human and... look, it's not going to work if I'm not human too. I just want to be normal, even if it's as a human." he explains. He's clearly said the wrong thing because Shyarly's eyes burn with intense fire.

"He doesn't like you as you are? He's one of these bastards who thinks that anyone from down here is-" She snarls.

"No! No... it's not like that. He likes me just as I am. I don't though, so, please if you know of anyone that could make me human then please tell me." He pleads. That seems to pacify the shark woman and she relaxes back into her chair.

"Sanji, there is nothing wrong with you as there is. Is this the man you speak of?" Shyarly asks, pulling a crystal ball from the table to the side of her and waving her hand over it. As he lowers it to Sanji's face he sees Zoro inside of it, on the ship working out with his weights. He's shirtless and his muscles bulge and gleam as he moves. Sanji's stomach feels like it's filled with a thousand tiny fish with fluttering tails. He nods, not trusting his words right now.

"Shyarly, is there anyone who can make me human?" He asks hopefully, looking up at her. If there is then he could change, get human clothes and catch a boat back up to Sabody. Zoro will no doubt be there before too long and he could be reunited with him. They could be happy.

"No. I've seen your future and you will always be as you are now, no more and no less. You need to accept that. No one can make you human, and even if they could I wouldn't tell you." she says flatly.

Sanji's anger flares inside of him, hot and bright. But goddamn him, he can feel his eyes welling up with moisture.

"FINE! I'll just be alone and miserable FOREVER then!" Sanji yells, clenching his fists at his side.

"Sanji, I've seen your future you-" Shyarly begins but Sanji doesn't want to hear more of her meddlesome shit. She's so convinced that she's infallible that she shapes the world to match her visions. He bets she does know of someone who can help him, she's just "seen" that he stays as he is forever and so refuses to let him know of who could help him, thus assuring her fucking prophecy.

He has no time for that bullshit. He slams open her front door and swims away as fast as he can, scattering wide eyed onlookers who stare at him as he flees the scene. There's thankfully not many of them at this time in the morning but still far too many for comfort.

He races out of the island's bubble, past all the houses and slums and doesn't stop until he's at the black, blank ocean floor. He curls up there, the pressure of the water around him feeling comforting, like it's holding him together. He'd had hope that he could see Zoro again, that he could be who he wants to be for Zoro, but he can't. He never can be. He knew all along that his life would be like this but Zoro's warmth and persistence had made him think otherwise. Without even meaning to he'd started to hope that things could be okay.


	8. Chapter 8

After two long years of not seeing his nakama Zoro is used to missing people. It's been even longer since he saw Sanji and he's pretty much accepted that he never will again. He tends not to think of him so much any more. He had training to do on Mihawk's island and he had to plan how he was getting back to Luffy, even so throughout that whole two years he always looked closely at the water when he was near it. He never expected to see that flash of blonde hair again but he still looked.

Over the two years he'd dream about Sanji now and then. After they rescued Camie from the auction house he'd have dreams about Sanji there, that he'd missed him and Sanji living in some bastard's aquarium. Every time he'd wake in a cold sweat with Sanji's shouts in his ears. Those dreams were awful. He had dreamt other things though, he had dreams that felt real and mundane with Sanji sprawled on the grass on the sunny, picking blades of grass and talking to him. He dreamt of being pinned to the beach by Sanji's muscular body, only Sanji didn't bail on him. They'd go further and further and his dreams were always hazy about Sanji's anatomy but he remembers how Sanji made him feel, he remembers the flushed and blissful look on Sanji's face too. Those dreams would leave him desperately wanting and they were every bit as tortuous as the dreams of the auction house.

When he reached Sabody there was no Sanji, but considering that they were heading to fishman island next he couldn't help but think of the blonde.

"I take it that he didn't show up again over the two years?" Nami asks him, appearing at his shoulder. Zoro jolts, dragging his eyes away from the inky blue black of the water around them and to Nami.

"No." He answers firmly. Nami opens her mouth, a sympathetic and almost pitying expression on her face but evidently his glare shuts her up as she closes her mouth again, killing whatever she was going to say.

Of course their journey to fishman island couldn't have been smooth, that was never how things worked with them, but Zoro is okay with that as the intensity of their adventures always keeps him on his toes. Perhaps he's mad but he'd missed the constant chaos and threat whilst he was away, even though being chased by homicidal apes was pretty life threatening in itself.

The end of that encounter leaves him stranded alone somewhere on the fishman island, everyone else is missing but Zoro's not too worried about that, he saw that everyone made it through the bubble thanks to Franky's Coup de Burst. Everyone just got separated as they fell but his nakama all got strong enough over the last two years for him to not worry about them any time soon. He just needs to find them, but there's no need to panic or rush to do so.

"You've been wandering in circles you know." A voice says from nearby. Zoro looks up sharply and sees the silhouette of a shark above him, a big one too. He jolts and his hands fly to his swords before he spots the distinctly humanoid upper body, it's a mermaid, not a shark.

"I'm not lost if that's what you mean." Zoro answers flatly. The woman chuckles in a dark way that reminds him of Robin before she settles down onto the ground near him, her tail folded under herself as if she was kneeling. She is unbelievably huge.

"You're supposed to be going that way, that is, if you want to have your reunion." She says with a smile and a puff on her long stemmed pipe. Zoro turns and looks, the way that she's pointing looks much the same as any other direction, only he thinks that he might be able to see the shimmering curve of the bubble around the island in that direction.

"Down into the fishman district. It's a little dangerous down there but you'll make it back to me in one piece." She says mysteriously.

"Who the hell are you?" Zoro asks suspiciously.

"Oh, how rude of me. I know just who you are Zoro, it's easy to forget that you don't actually know me." She says with a surprised smile.

"My name is Madam Shyarly. I own the Mermaid Cafe and I happen to be a very gifted fortune teller. I've seen you an awful lot. I've mostly given up fortune telling but I've got a special interest in you and certain people around you." Shyarly says secretively.

"That's pretty creepy." he answers flatly. Nami would probably tell him to be less tactless but he's right, that is creepy. Why is she watching him and why is she so interested in him?

"Charming. Take this, the fishman district is entirely underwater, not like here. The water pressure out there is exceedingly high and I'd not advise popping the bubble unless you're willing to risk death. So go on, that way." Shyarly says, tossing Zoro a bubble coral. He looks down at it for a few long moments. Why would his crew be out in the fishman district if it's outside the island's bubble? They all landed inside so surely there would be no reason to go out. But then he thinks of Luffy and his instinct to run blindly towards adventure and excitement regardless of the danger to himself. If that's where he's needed then that's where he'll go. If this Shyarly woman is trying to trick him into some kind of trap then, well, he's sure he can fight his way out of it. He didn't spend all that time training for nothing.

"That way?" He asks, pointing a finger.

"That way. See you later." Shyarly smiles, her dark eyes shining mischievously.

Zoro sets off in the direction that he's told but even he has a suspicion that he's getting a little turned around, either that or coral only grows in a few  _really_  distinct shapes. After passing the same pink cactus shaped piece for the third time he gives up and picks a different direction, only to land smack at the water's edge not ten paces away from where he was. Lo and behold there's an unguarded and apparently disused double gate out into the sea.

Perhaps there's more to Shyarly's psychic act than just smoke and mirrors after all, there's no way she could have just guessed his deliberate course change at the last moment.

Figuring that he has nothing to lose he swims across the short stretch of water and hauls himself up into the airlock gate. He bangs his fist on the clear release and the first door whooshes open, leaving him inside a bubbled corridor joining the two skins of the bubbles that surround the island. He inflates a bubble around himself that nearly completely fills the space that he's in. If he's going to have to rescue any of his nakama, most likely Luffy, then he needs enough air to support more than just himself. With that done he pockets the coral safely and reaches over to jam his fist against the button against the resistance of the bubble. Water rushes into the enclosed space at a stunning speed and shoots him and his bubble out like a cork out of a bottle. The speed of it slams him into the back of his bubble and then spins him violently around and around until it loses its momentum quite some way from the door, he almost feels a little sick from being whirled around like that but he shoves the sensation down.

Looking around he can see the lights and buildings of the fishman district below and to the right. Maneuvering the bubble is awkward and requires a lot of very inefficient running to get it to move but he manages to get down into the district and sink behind a building. He needs to listen to what's going on if he wants to know where to head. If it's Luffy down here then the chances are that he's made himself more than noticeable. Zoro wants to know where to go, not to fight every asshole down here.

"Did you see that guy?"

"The nerve of him coming down here. It's not called the  _fishman_  district for nothing, he has no place here."

Zoro's mouth pinches into an unimpressed line, so the human and fishman antagonism is going strong down here too huh? Seems even smarter to stay out of sight until he needs to.

"Usually he knows better than to come through here though."

"Yeah, but he was probably getting to Shyarly. You know she has a thing for strays, especially people like him. Charity cases, you know?"

"Ugh, even so..."

A bang ripples through the water and makes Zoro's bubble wobble and shudder along the surface. It sounded like a cannon going off. Zoro runs his fingers over the skin of his bubble warily and his other hand goes to the pocketed bubble coral, he does not want this thing popping on him. What the hell was that anyway?

"Holy shit, my ears actually popped from that!"

"That's his mantis kick right? Do you know how that thing works?"

"What? No."

"So he kicks his fin so fast that it breaks the sound barrier, boils the water right by it and it explodes like a bomb. I hope he didn't use it up close on them."

Wait, what? Fin? Luffy doesn't have...

"If that fucking blonde freak hurts any of the gang I'll-"

"You'll what? Sanji's a monster but you wouldn't stand a chance against him. Maybe they can actually put him down this time though, do us all a favor."

Sanji. Shyarly meant Sanji. He's here and he's caught in a fight! SHIT. Zoro crouches and jumps, flinging his bubble off in the direction of the explosion and away from the two startled gossiping fishmen. He keeps sprinting and slowly a group of seriously mean looking fish men surrounding Sanji come into view. They're on the outskirts of the district, where there's more room to smack each other around without serious real estate damage.

His eyes land on Sanji first of all. Oh god, Sanji. He's got that same graceful halo of golden hair that Zoro remembers and that perfect arc of his back and dorsal fin. Sanji looks beautiful in righteous fury. He's not quite floating upright, but tilted slightly, eying the men surrounding him. Sinking slowly to the seafloor is a dazed and bleeding fishman with ripped up gills on one side. Sanji's hands tense and untense at his side, his earfins flat to his head and flicking in anger.

"I'll kill you for that!" One of the fishmen roars, this one is some kind of ray and he swoops furiously through the water towards Sanji.

"Not with your slow ass you won't!" Sanji laughs maliciously and arcs gracefully out of his way astonishingly fast in a way that looks almost effortless. That is until Sanji twists in the water and slams his tail fin into the guy's midsection, sending him flying towards the sandy floor with a crash. Sanji can  _fight_ underwater. More than that Sanji is devastating in a fight. Sure he knew that Sanji was strong and capable underwater, the man has tried to drown him more than a few times for Zoro to know it but he's never seen him like this before. Zoro's heartbeat may or may not be thudding in his throat and other places right now.

"Is that a goddamn human?" One of them says in confused shock. Suddenly all eyes are on him, including Sanji's.

"ZORO?!" Sanji yells in disbelief.

"No, it's about to be a nasty red stain. Let me just pop that bubble." One of the guys says. Zoro's eyes widen as the fishman puffs up to twice, no, three times his size. He's a pufferfish. With a yell several high speed spikes fly towards him through the water and Zoro draws his swords right away to defend himself.

A white, blue, yellow blur slams into his bubble and the two of them roll wildly across the sea floor and water before coming to a stop. Zoro shakes his head, his vision is spinning. After a second Zoro manages to stand up, having figured out which way is up. Sanji's back is to him his hands pressed against Zoro's bubble and his tail lashing underneath them, keeping them steady. Zoro stares at the place near where he'd just been floating and sees meter long spikes imbedded in the ground. Shit that was close. Sanji didn't need to stop him though, he could have deflected those.

"Unless you want to pop that bubble and implode in an incredibly painful death you'll put those goddamn swords away!" Sanji snarls at him over his shoulder.

"But-" Zoro protests. The bubbles are flexible enough, he should be able to use them even to defend, surely with the back of his blade at least.

"NO. The pressure down here is too much for that bubble to withstand anything that strong, put them away. Who the hell even sent you out here in that thing?!" Sanji demands, his head tilting as the other fishmen circle back around. Sanji swears under his breath and tries moving Zoro in the other direction, his hands pressed against the bubble. Zoro sheathes his swords.

"Shyarly did, she said... she said that- ugh. I thought she meant that Luffy had got his stupid ass out here." Zoro admits, his eyes tracking the too fast fishmen surrounding them.

"Great. Just... just great." Sanji hisses angrily.

"Hey freak, you might be fast but pushing that humie around is gonna slow you way down. You're throwing in your lot with them, even though they'd probably kill you, stuff you and put you in a freakshow?" One of them laughs, a shark fishman Zoro thinks from the look of his teeth.

"But that's where he belongs I suppose." Another laughs nastily. Zoro eyes him, a cuttlefish for this guy maybe? He's got weird tentacles by his mouth at least and he keeps changing colour from white to red.

"I could take you all on in my sleep, don't think this makes a difference. Unless any of the rest of you fuckers want your gills caved in like that asshole." Sanji shouts in threat, still pushing Zoro's bubble backwards toward the main bubble of fishman island.

"You could actually run in that thing and  _help_  you know." Sanji says under his breath. Zoro stops standing there like a moron and starts running and the two of them pick up a little more speed.

"Psh, yeah, like you're going to go to all that trouble to stop me popping his bubble only to do it yourself with that attack." The pufferfish man laughs nastily. Shit, he's capped off the power that Sanji can use by being so close to him.

"Why don't I take that burden off of your hands, hm, mutie?" The ray fishman says, his clothes torn from Sanji's last attack on him. The guy dives through the water at shocking speeds.

Sanji swears and lets go of Zoro's bubble. He ducks and pivots misdirecting the guy with his tail and knocking him off course but even Zoro can see that it didn't pack anywhere near as much of a punch as it did before Zoro showed up. Even the movement of Sanji doing that is enough that Zoro can feel it through his bubble. He came out here to help and ended up getting attacked himself, worse still he's put Sanji in an even worse position than he was.

"MOVE!" Sanji yells, cutting a path through the water back to him and pressing both hands against the bubble and swimming as hard as he can without indenting too hard into the bubble and threatening its stability. Every few seconds it seems that Sanji has to disengage from him to fend off another attack and he's getting hurt doing it. After the third time Sanji is trailing blood from a cut on his arm and the forth leaves him with a slightly crumpled earfin. This isn't the reunion that he'd hoped for. When he gets out of this he is going to track down Shyarly and stab her.

Zoro winces as the bubble around him wobbles unsteadily, the shark fishman just toppled a pillar of rock to the left of them, making Sanji have to swerve to redirect them. Before even a second has passed another pillar topples over to their right. Both of them are so huge that when they crash together in an apex on the ground it leaves them trapped unless they want to go right up and get a lot closer to their attackers.

"Hey Sanji, think fast." one of them yells and laughs. Zoro spins in the right direction and sees a massive boulder hurtling in their direction.

"SHIT!" Sanji exclaims and sinks his hands onto either side of the bubble. He kicks his tail and spins them, making Zoro spin up on top of him and furthest from the boulder. Suddenly Sanji is snatched away from Zoro as the boulder makes contact with the side of the blonde's body, slamming him against one of the toppled rock pillars and pinning him there. Sanji's scream is like a knife to Zoro's gut.

"SANJI!" Zoro sprints like mad in his bubble and crashes himself into the side of the boulder, shifting it just enough to move it off of Sanji ever so slightly. With a sick sounding rip and a cloud of blood the blonde pulls free but the damage is clear. His dorsal fin, the one that Zoro had touched so carefully on the beach that night, the one made up of thin blue membranes and delicate spines of cartilage is fractured and broken, the blue flesh ripped and pierced in places and the top most fin outright snapped in half. Sanji's hands fly to it and Zoro watches as it flicks. The part that is somehow connected to his spine works close to his back but halfway down the bony spine that makes the upper most part of the the dorsal fin is snapped almost completely and refuses to move with the rest of it, instead bending sickly in place like a door hinge.

It's especially telling considering the horror going on right next to him to say that Zoro has bigger problems. His attention flashes back to the bubble as he hears a sound like tearing silk. He's still pressed to the boulder and he watches in horror as the jagged edges of the rock tear the bubble slowly apart. His ears pop warningly and a sense of claustrophobia sets in as the edges of the bubble race towards him. Zoro flails and yanks the bubble coral out of his pocket, slamming it into the rock and hastily patching the rip. It's close enough to him now that he's crouched and even then his hair is brushing the top of the bubble. It's not getting any smaller but he can't run like this, without Sanji he can't move. The fishmen have realised this too, circling around and laughing like hyenas.

"Sanji, your fin!" Zoro calls in fear.

"You're the one you should be worrying about, your bubble is- agh- nearly done for." Sanji grits out, a spasm wracking his body as he turns. Sanji floats in place, one hand clenched around his fin as his gills shudder with every pained breath he draws in.

"I'm going to try to flick you over there with my tail. There's a portal through there, that's what I was aiming for. I'm gonna kick you there and try and follow, I'll steer you back if my aim is off. If they go for you though I'll have to fall back to fight them." Sanji explains through gritted teeth as he points to the bubble of the island.

"You can't stay out here on your own with them, not with your fin like that!" Zoro argues angrily.

"Tch, you underestimate me." Sanji laughs, though it sounds pained and the confidence faked. The blonde leans back and settles Zoro's small bubble on the flat of his fin before pulling away from it, squinting one eye and then- then Zoro is shooting through the water, his hands braced on the bubble that's shaking like an earthquake.

Hands catch his bubble, but they're not Sanji's. They're orange webbed hands of two seahorse men in official looking uniforms, they're right by the doors to the bubbles. Damn Sanji has good aim.

"What the hell kind of bad luck did a human get to end up out here?" One of them exclaims, pulling him closer.

"What happened to you?" The other asks.

"There's a fight, my friend got me here but where is he?! He was supposed to follow me!" Zoro answers distractedly. The two start up with questions again but Zoro doesn't care about them, instead he pitches forward and presses his hands against the bubble looking out to sea. He sees Sanji dodge and then feels the ripple of another explosion through the water, then all of a sudden Sanji is hurtling towards them. His path is off though, one hand is pressed to his dorsal fin and he keeps spinning off of course, even going to far as to tumble over himself and skid sideways at one point. He misjudges his path and slams into the bubble wall around the portal with a pained shout.

"Sanji!" Zoro calls as the two guards haul him in.

"Oh,  _that_  kind of bad luck." One of the guards groans.

"Look, he's Roronoa Zoro of the Straw Hat Pirates, his crew will be here. Shyarly sent him out here and she's expecting him back, send him to her." Sanji says in pained gasps, peering down over the portal to the guards.

"Shit, one of the Straw Hats? They're summoned to the palace, right?" the first guard says to the second who nods sharply.

"Great, take him there. If that's where he's supposed to go then I guess she'll meet him there." Sanji says with a nod, the two guards glare at the blonde.

"You don't tell us what to do." The first guard snaps.

"How about I tell you to go fuck yourselves?" Sanji argues back.

"How about you get out of here or I'll shoot you and add to that nice dorsal break you've got there?" The second guard threatens, pulling his gun free.

"Alright, I'm going." Sanji spits bitterly, holding his hands up.

"Like hell you are! I haven't seen you for over two years, you can't just disappear on me again! Get in here!" Zoro shouts furiously up at Sanji. The blonde's expression softens and looks pained, but Zoro doesn't think that it's from his fin. Sanji's fingers curl loosely on the glass lip of the portal and he looks at Zoro sadly upside down, his earfins dropping sadly.

"Zoro... they're not going to let me in. I'll be fine. Don't... don't worry about me okay?" Sanji says quietly.

Zoro's gaze snaps to the guards and he sees that one is reaching for the button that will close the outside gate off and drain the inside, leaving him inside the island and Sanji out there alone. He snarls and unsheathes his sword.

"Zoro what are you-"

That's the last thing Zoro hears. He jams Wado's blade through the bubble and leaps up, his hand tangling around Sanji's wrist. The water rushes against him so hard it's like being hit by a meteor. The next thing he knows he's on his back on the floor with water draining off of him and Sanji leaning over him with terror in his eyes. God, everything hurts. Sanji's mouth is moving but Zoro can't hear a thing that he's saying, the way that the room is spinning doesn't help either. He opens his mouth in a pained groan and one ear pops, the term an understatement as it feels more like being punched in the side of the head than a simple pop. Right after it his other ear goes too.

"Zoro, Zoro, don't you dare die on me after all I just went through!" Sanji yells at him.

"Quit shouting, my ears..." Zoro groans, pressing his hands to his head. Sanji laughs in almost hysterical relief and drops his head to Zoro's shoulder, his ear fin pressed to Zoro's cheek.

"You are the dumbest fucking bastard I've ever met." Sanji laughs weakly, one hand tightening on Zoro's upper arm.

"The swordsman needs to go to the palace but like hell am I taking  _that_  there with him." One of the guards says. Zoro opens one eye and glares at the guard, considering if he can manage to shank him in the thigh from this distance without jolting Sanji's torn fin.

"I'm not going  _anywhere_ without him, so wherever you're taking me he's going too." Zoro growls, wrapping his arm around Sanji's upper back. Sanji starts to protest but he's suddenly cut off as he stares upwards. The two guards gasp as well.

"Madame Shyarly!" One guard exclaims in shock. Zoro tilts his head back and sees the giant shark lady.

"Give me one reason not to stab you." Zoro demands flatly with a hot glare at her. She damn near got both of them killed, Sanji's dorsal fin is seriously fucked up and Zoro can only hope that it's repairable, he's seen how hard it was for Sanji to swim with it like that.

"You're both alive and together and in one piece just as I promised." Shyarly offers lightly.

"My ears are bleeding, I can hear this screeching high pitched noise and Sanji's fin is mangled." Zoro points out angrily.

"Yes, and? You're both fine, or you will be anyway. Come here, move Sanji." Shyarly says, shooing Sanji off of him and scooping Zoro up off of the floor and resting him on the large bubble ring around her waist. As she moves him Zoro's world pitches and tilts violently in a way that he's sure has to do with his inner ears. He doesn't dare lift his head up off of where Shyarly has placed him so he only hears what comes next.

"You too Sanji, come here." Shyarly says lightly.

"Shyarly, surely you're not going to touch him? You know he's cursed- oh god." one of the guards trails off in horror.

"AUGH!"

"We'll get you to a doctor Sanji, just stay still." Shyarly says soothingly and twists as she presumably lays Sanji down on the bubble as she had done for Zoro.

"Shit shit shit aaah!" Sanji curses hotly. Out of the corner of his eye Zoro can see Sanji's fingers claw into the bubble. Zoro sees the sky move as Shyarly presumably turns and starts to swim away through the air and Zoro is forced to close his eyes in defense against his eyes, his ears and the spinning in his head pulling him in different directions and making him want to hurl.

"Shyarly... why?" Sanji chokes out as they go.

"You said that you wished you could see him again, that he could understand. I told you that you would and he would. You didn't believe me." The shark mermaid says easily.

"Shyarly don't do this to me, please." Sanji begs quietly, but Shyarly ignores him. Before too long Zoro hears a door open and when he opens his eyes Shyarly has stopped and he's looking at a ceiling. Zoro groans and moves to climb off of the bubble, only the world spins again and he lands on his back and shoulders on the floor.

"Graceful." Sanji says in a weak but sarcastic voice. Zoro dizzily orients himself upright and unsteadily flips Sanji off.

"The doctor will be here in a minute, I called him before I left." Shyarly says as if knowing the future is something mundane that everyone does.

The dark haired mermaid gently picks Sanji up off of the bubble around her waist and deposits him front side down on her very long oversized lounging chair which is easily bed sized and more for Sanji. Zoro stumbles to his feet and staggers to Sanji's side, dropping into kneeling so that he doesn't pitch over. He takes Sanji's cold hand in his and squeezes. He really hopes that this dizziness and high pitched screech in his ears passes and it's anything serious and long term.

"Hey." Zoro says quietly.

"You don't have to stay here, you know. I'll be okay." Sanji says, not meeting Zoro's eyes and instead staring down at the cushion below him.

"Sorry, only one of us vanishes on the other and it's not me that does that." the swordsman says with more than a hint of malice in his voice. He still feels a hell of a lot of things for Sanji, he was head over heels for him two and a half years ago but Sanji pretty much broke his heart for no good reason. Everything he's felt today, seeing Sanji, the pain of not being able to help him or even properly defend himself, seeing him hurt, all of that has brought into perfect clarity that his feelings for Sanji haven't waned at all. That doesn't mean that he's not as pissed off as hell at Sanji for doing all of that to him though.

"I guess I deserved that." Sanji admits unhappily.

"Too fucking right you did! Do you even know how-" Zoro starts, his voice picking up in volume. But at that moment the door to wherever they are opens and a merman comes in, a black doctors bag in one hand.

"Madame Shyarly you called for- oh no, not  _him_." the doctor says, halting with his eyes on Sanji like someone would look at a reared up cobra ready to strike. Zoro feels furious, the anger coils inside his gut and boils threateningly. He could put those assholes down in the fishman district as just being assholes, or maybe being jerks about what kind of fish Sanji is most like, but now so many different people have treated Sanji like shit that Zoro is starting to think that it's a personal thing. The only reason that Zoro hasn't attacked this guy for acting like this is that he's the best chance Sanji has right now of getting his fin fixed.

"You will treat him." Shyarly says simply and Zoro isn't sure if that's a prediction or an order, maybe a threat even, but the look she fixes him makes the man angrily turn to Sanji and swim over, dumping his bag at the floor by Zoro's knees.

"Do you even want me to do this? I'm going to have to use the cartilage gun and clips on you and I won't use any painkillers, no one knows what kind would even work on someone like you." The doctor says with a sneer.

"How can you not know what would work on him? You're a doctor aren't you? I know that different people down here respond to drugs differently but it's your job to know what works!" Zoro demands angrily. The doctor scowls down at him, his tail twitching in irritation and the thick black mustache under his noise quivering angrily.

"You don't know anything you ignorant human. I know what works on merpeople and what works on fishpeople, I even know what works on humans but  _he_  is none of the above." the doctor says, flicking Sanji a dirty look.

"Don't, just... don't talk." Sanji grits out, attempting to stare down the doctor through the curtain of his hair. The doctor gets a smug smile at this and elaborates when he sees Zoro's confused face.

"Merpeople and fishpeople breed all of the time, it's completely normal. The child ends up as one or the other, it's simple biology." The doctor says, reaching into his bag and dousing a large wad of cotton with something with a antiseptic tang to the smell of it.

"Either of them can breed with humans too, though why anyone would want to do  _that_  is beyond me." The doctor says with a nasty look in Zoro's direction, as if Zoro was something disgusting on the pavement.

"Shut your fucking mouth." Sanji spits out, his tail lashing angrily at the end. The doctor presses the antiseptic to Sanji's broken fin and the skin around it, making him curse and his hands clench tight on the fabric of the giant lounge chair.

"It usually isn't successful it's hard to conceive and half of those end in failure. The offspring are sterile if they're not human, or they're supposed to be anyway. His mother was a half human fishwoman and for some reason she wasn't. The stupid girl should have told someone when she got knocked up, but she didn't." the doctor elaborates. He reaches down and pulls something out of his bag that looks like a cross between a glue gun or a welding torch that Franky or Usopp would use for one of their projects, he flicks a switch on it on the side and Zoro can feel the heat from it already.

"Say another fucking word about my mother, I dare you." Sanji snarls furiously.

"Shut up, boy." the doctor says sharply and presses the gun to Sanji's snapped open fin. He pulls the trigger and some kind of white goo comes out of it which the doctor spreads around, uncaring about Sanji's pained screams. Zoro reaches for Sanji's hand and the blonde crushes it in agony but Zoro keeps rubbing his thumb along his knuckles until the doctor is done. The merman eventually pulls the limp end of the main spine of Sanji's fin up and presses it hard against the goo covered snap in the cartilage.

"Even though she shouldn't have been able to become pregnant she certainly shouldn't have been able to carry an abomination like that to term." The doctor continues casually.

"STOP! Stop it!" Sanji screams out, holding onto Zoro's hand. However much his fin hurts right now Zoro knows that it's the doctors words that hurt more.

"One quarter human, one quarter fishman and half merman. There's not even a word for it. Except for a jinx of course. He killed his mother when he was born and before he got to five his father killed himself out of shame, I'm surprised that he lasted that long. Wherever  _he_  goes, trouble follows. Storms, disasters, riots, all because of him." The doctor huffs.

"The only comfort in this whole mess is that he can't spread his curse onto anyone else, not genetically at least. He's lacking the parts and he's not got the marks that show his tail will ever split." The doctor laughs and Sanji visibly flinches this time. He takes his hand off of Sanji's fin and whatever it was holds. The doctor reaches into his bag and takes out a metal clip, snapping it over the break and tightening it like a kind of splint.

"Can the rest be fixed with stitches? The tears in his fin I mean." Zoro asks calmly as he feels Sanji shake against his hand.

"Membrane stitches here, yes." The doctor sniffs distainfully, laying them down by Sanji's side.

"Good." Zoro nods and stands up, pulling his hand free of Sanji's. The blonde curls his arms up over himself with his fingers in his hair as if afraid that someone might hit him in the back of the head or perhaps just to try to hide his existence.

"Leave your things here, you've got three seconds to get out of here or else you'll be doing a really good impression of a filleted fish." Zoro orders, his voice steady and calm. He draws out Kitetsu and levels the edge of the blade at the man's chest, he feels the cursed sword sing out for blood and unless this fucker moves really goddamn quick he's in the mood to oblige it.

"But-" The doctor protests and Zoro steps closer, raising his arm up to strike. He can cut him in half, shoulder to hip. He can rend him into meaty racist chunks and he neither knows nor cares whether it's him or his sword that wants it more. Perhaps it's the move or the 'evil aura' of his that people talk about but the doctor literally turns tail and escapes out of the building as fast as he can.

He sees Shyarly smile again and she innocently excuses herself from the room.

Zoro sheathes his sword in mutual disappointment and returns to Sanji's side. He gets clean cotton wool and covers it in antiseptic. He leans in and gently dabs at the cuts and tears in Sanji's fin where the rock bit into the delicate membranes there. He pauses after each one and sticks one or two of the stitches that feel like something between plastic, elastic and gum over the rips in his fin. After a little he catches Sanji looking at him out of the corner of his eye.

"They're gone, it's just us." Zoro says calmly and sticks another stitch down.

"I didn't want you to hear any of that." Sanji says in a small voice.

Zoro pauses in his repair work on Sanji's fin, he doesn't want to screw it up from being distracted and he owes it to Sanji to listen.

"I told you that it wouldn't work, that we could never-" Sanji says shaking his head sharply.

"I told you to- did you find someone else? Someone who could give you..." Sanji trails off and presses his hands to his eyes and swears under his breath.

"No, no one else." He answers simply and watches Sanji's back tense up.

"Well I hope you weren't waiting on me," Sanji laughs hollowly, "now that you know what I am and all."

Zoro pushes himself up onto his feet again, his head only spinning slightly at the movement. He moves around to where Sanji is laid out and kneels down again. He first wants to say that it doesn't matter but he stops that thought before it even begins to get to his mouth. This does matter. It's mattered for Sanji's whole life and it clearly matters a hell of a lot to him right now, to say otherwise would be a huge insult. Claiming that it doesn't matter to him personally would be just be rude too.

He leans in and presses a kiss to Sanji's hair at the crown of his head and notes the flutter of Sanji's ear fins as he does so. He pulls back a little and forces his words into the right order to get his meaning across just right, this is important.

"It doesn't change how I feel about you." He says simply.

"What?!" Sanji yelps, his head snapping up and connecting painfully with Zoro's face. He hears something in his nose go crunch and he flails backwards, clutching at his now streaming nose.

"Oh god! I didn't- are you okay?! Did I just break your nose? Oh, shit!" Sanji exclaims in mortification and pulls himself closer to Zoro.

"I don' dink so." Zoro says thickly through the blood spurting from his nose and streaming down his chin. He pinches the bridge of his nose and pitches forward, trying to let it run itself out.

"I'm just so smooth, you tell me you like me and I break your face. Come here, let me see." Sanji laughs and pulls him close, the absurdity of the situation has Zoro grinning too.

"I don't think it's broken, does it hurt?" The blonde asks after running his fingers gently down the bridge of Zoro's nose, his other hand on Zoro's jaw keeping him still.

"I'll libe. You?" Zoro asks with a snuffle and a point to Sanji's fin.

"It feels like I got smashed up by a rock, then someone jammed a burning cartilage gun into one of my limbs, melted it and slammed it back together. Which is what actually happened. So yeah, it hurts like hell." Sanji answers angrily, glaring over his shoulder at his dorsal fin like it personally betrayed him. It flexes open and flat a few times but Zoro can see the pained wince on Sanji's face when he does it.

"Hol' dt open." Zoro says, waving his hand and shuffles down to Sanji's fin again. He still had some repairs to do on the thin bits between the spines of his fin. He has to stop every minute or so to wipe the blood off of his face, it's slowed down to a trickle from his nose now but it's still getting everywhere.

"Did you really mean it? That it doesn't change anything?" Sanji asks after a few minutes.

"I said it, didn't I?" Zoro says sharply. His nose has mostly cleared up now and though he sounds kind of dumb and nasally still he doesn't sound quite so stupid any more.

"Didn't you hear the doctor? He might be awful but he's right, I'm not any of the things that I should be. My tail's never gonna split, I've not got anything of use to you for sex and if you're thinking about fucking me in the ass like you humans do then I'm sad to inform you that unless you've got a needle thick dick then that 'aint gonna work!" Sanji shouts at him, his ears flat against his head.

"And it doesn't change anything! I still like you, I still want to go on more than one date with you. I don't need to get laid to be interested in someone!" Zoro argues back. He doesn't say that there's got to be a hell of a lot more to how he feels for Sanji after this many years without his feelings changing.

Sanji sits up carefully, swinging his tail so that he's sitting upright, though he's pitched forward somewhat to not aggravate his dorsal fin. His tail trails on the floor around Zoro's knees and Sanji forces himself to look Zoro in the eye with steely determination.

"But even if that happened and nothing went wrong then sooner or later you'd-" He starts.

"I'd work something out." Zoro cuts in. And Sanji opens and closes his mouth a few times, lost for words.

"Your face is all gross and I still want to kiss you." Sanji eventually says with a snort.

"You're gonna headbutt me in the face and insult me and then expect me to kiss you?" Zoro responds, raising a dubious eyebrow.

Sanji's face breaks out into a cocky grin and now, for the first time since Zoro has seen him again, he really looks like Sanji. All the blonde needs to do is to try and drown him and it'd be completely nostalgic.

"Psh, of course. How can you resist?" Sanji asks with a sharp toothed grin and a waggle of his ear fins. Zoro wants to make some comeback about Sanji, something witty but his brain short circuits when Sanji leans in and does kiss him. It's all soft and hesitant as if the man thinks that he's going to react badly and shout at him or pull away, so instead he holds back on the insults and oneupmanship just this once to really kiss Sanji back.

He has his hands on Sanji's jaw and he feels the way that his neck smoothly moves into gills on the side and how he's slightly cooler to the touch and everything about it is just amazing.

"You should come with us when we leave. On the ship." Zoro says against Sanji's mouth. Sanji tries to pull away but Zoro keeps him still pretty close and talks over Sanji's protests.

"Luffy thinks that you're cool, and you're strong. People here are shit to you, so unless you have some other reason to stay here...?" Zoro asks, leaning back and letting Sanji go.

"I don't have legs, in case you forgot. No matter how much I want to have adventures with you, and I do want to, I can't exactly walk around can I?" Sanji points out, his tail fin slapping Zoro in the leg.

"What, this doesn't work any more? Because it seems to work just fine on land inside the bubble here." Zoro says, holding out the bubble coral that he still had stashed in his pocket.

Sanji bites his lip in worry and Zoro considers pointing out that he's not asking the other man to  _marry_ him or anything, he just wants him around more. Getting him away from the assholes on this island would be a bonus.

"What would I even do on your ship? I refuse to just freeload." Sanji says firmly.

"I don't know. I'm sure you can find something you'll be good at though." Zoro says with a shrug. He looks forward to finding out what that is.


	9. Chapter 9

an anon on my tumblr asked for something short and sweet to make them feel better and I accidentally wrote a mini chapter for them, so I'm uploading it here too for your viewing pleasure. ^_^

You're all welcome to follow me on my tumblr, all of my writing goes there as well as little things that don't make it here and art by me and other people for my fics. My tumblr name is undanewneon

* * *

 

Zoro knows that Sanji's fin is hurting him, he can see it in the way that he holds himself and how careful he is when he moves, he can see it in the wince he makes if he ever isn't careful. More than that though Zoro can see how simply having fins hurts Sanji, though that's a deeper way.

Sanji is sprawled out on the grass of the deck with Usopp, Luffy and Chopper looking at him in awe. It had started off as Chopper checking on Sanji's damaged fin but then the others had got involved. Chopper had started noting down all of the things that he could about Sanji for his medical records, asking him questions about how far things could bend, where he was bone and where he was cartilage. It was all useful stuff and Sanji didn't seem to mind too much.

Now though... now Luffy is poking at bits on Sanji's tail and being amused by the way that he can get parts of Sanji's fin or tail to twitch when he does it. He's not being mean about it, he is genuinely fascinated by Sanji in the same way that he was and still is fascinated by Brook and Franky.

It's different for Sanji though and Zoro can see how tense Sanji is getting from the set of his shoulders and how tight the muscles in his back are tensing. Sanji was called a freak back in fishman island and Luffy is making him feel like one all over again.

"Oi, Luffy, Nami said she'd give you half of her lunch if you go help her with her chores." Zoro calls, jumping down onto the lawn deck.

"Really?!" Luffy gasps and sprints off.

"Have you got everything you need Chopper?" Zoro asks a little more gently, looking down at their doctor.

"Hm, it would be good to get a blood sample from you Sanji, just in case you ever need a transfusion. But... well, I think with your recent fights you've probably lost enough blood for now without me taking more. I'll go look over my notes, thank you Sanji!" Chopper says chirpily and trots off.

Zoro gives Usopp a mean enough stare until the sharpshooter rapidly finds somewhere else to be. Now that he and Sanji are alone he settles down on the grass next to Sanji.

"Man, Chopper went nuts on us when we first met him. He was obsessed with finding out everything, he spent so much time prodding at my scars and trying to work out why my hair was green. He means well but it was really annoying. I think Franky got it worst though, Chopper's still trying to work out how he fits together." Zoro comments with a snort of amusement.

"How long is that going to take him until he's done?" Sanji asks, not looking up at him. Sanji wants this over with and he wants it over with now.

"I'll let you know when he finishes with me." Zoro laughs.

"Great." Sanji mutters unhappily.

"You can just tell the others to fuck off if they're annoying you. You don't have to let them feel you up." Zoro points out a little more seriously.

"But Zoro, I wouldn't want you to feel like you've been replaced. You're the one that feels me up and gets told to fuck off. You won't feel special if I treat everyone like that." Sanji says, grinning at Zoro with shark like teeth.

"I hate you, I try to help you out and you're an ass. Still." Zoro grunts, getting to his feet and leaning against the railing of the ship so that he can look down on Sanji with distain.

Sanji flicks his fin, he's been doing that lately to... settle it perhaps? Stop it from cramping up? Perhaps a pain reflex?

Zoro's too busy contemplating that and he doesn't notice Sanji pushing himself up so that he's nearly... well.. kneeling. As much as someone without knees can kneel. Sanji grins at him in a flash of bright, sharp teeth. Zoro freezes, he knows that look he-

Zoro flails in the air for a moment before his back hits the water. He sees rather than feels Sanji hit the water next to him, the other man slices through it like a knife. Zoro rises to the surface spluttering and coughing. Sanji appears next to him, just above the water as far as his eyes but Zoro can tell from the tilt of his ear fins that Sanji has a devious expression on his face.

"This is what I get for getting those idiots off of you?" Zoro coughs.

"And to show my gratitude you get a ten second head start before I try and drown you." Sanji purrs, rising up out of the water enough to speak.

Zoro stares at Sanji for a second or two and then swims desperately away in the water. At least Sanji is feeling better.

Arms wrap around his waist and drag him under the water, giving Zoro just enough time to take a breath before he's dragged under.


	10. Chapter 10

Sanji breathes deep and stretches his spine out, flexing all of his muscles and loosening his tendons. He flicks his tail easily and glides through the water. He twists his neck to the side and the rest of his spine slowly follows, moving him in a gentle corkscrew. He does the same the other way and sighs happily. It's good to stretch.

 

He hears and feels the displacement of the water and doesn't even have to look around to see that it's Zoro who has jumped off of the side of the ship, he's the only one dumb enough to do it. Sanji glances around, there's no other fish of note nearby, none big enough to threaten Zoro at least. He slides over to him through the water slowly and watches as Zoro ducks his head under water and clearly doesn't even see him in the just broken dawn light. Sanji rolls his eyes, it's a wonder that nothing has eaten this chump yet.

 

He dives low and settles about ten feet under Zoro. He grins broadly and snaps his tail sharply sending him shooting up towards Zoro. He snags the swordsman by his underarms, his hands lacing over the back of the man's neck. Sanji waits the split second for his system to kick over from gills to lungs before he leans in.

 

“Got ya.” He growls in Zoro's ear.

 

“What're you gonna do then?” Zoro asks, tilting his head as much as he can to look at Sanji.

 

“Hm, well a dumb human swimming in the ocean at dawn is just begging to have some big fish take a chunk out of him.” Sanji reasons and feels Zoro's legs kick inefficiently in the water in front of him. He doesn't need to, Sanji wouldn't let him drown. How much things change, huh?

 

Zoro makes a thoughtful kind of sound and tilts his head to the side as much as he's able, exposing the long muscled sweep of his neck. An invitation, or maybe a dare.

 

“You're stupid, I could rip right through your skin with my teeth you know.” Sanji mutters, letting Zoro go. The swordsman paddles and turns in the water to face Sanji.

 

“Could.” Zoro repeats, like it's some wise answer. Sanji sinks a little lower in the ocean, his nose and mouth under the water and his mutant system switches back to his gills again. Where does Zoro get off trusting him like that?

 

“Is the aquarium big enough for you to sleep in? I see you out here a lot at night and in the morning.” Zoro asks, a frown pinching his eyebrows together. The movement distorts the scar that runs from brow to cheekbone. Sanji wants to ask him how he got it but after the way he treated Zoro before he's got no right to anything in those intervening years.

 

“It's fine to sleep in, but it's not the ocean.” Sanji shrugs, surfacing again. Another breathing switch.

 

“Good.” Zoro nods.

 

“Were you worried?” Sanji grins, sharklike as he senses weakness. Zoro turns deliciously red and he glances away and mumbles denials.

 

“I'm gonna get back on board before I freeze my ass off.” Zoro says after a moment and swims to the rope ladder and hauls himself up it.

 

“You're the one who dived in, idiot.” Sanji shouts up after him.

 

Sanji rubs his face and curses himself as Zoro disappears out of sight, that whole encounter could have gone a lot better.

 

Ever since he kissed Zoro a week ago on fishman island Zoro has kept a respectful kind of distance from him. He's clearly interested, Sanji can tell that much from the way he sees Zoro looking at him, but he's waiting for... something. Probably for Sanji to get his shit together and make his own move.

 

He should really do that, get his shit together that is.

 

It feels stupid but he's spent so much of his life without any positive physical contact that he doesn't really know how it works. Even most of his relationship with Zoro from the beginning was characterized by him trying to drown the other man. But in between their fighting Zoro had touched him with reverence, with gentleness and some degree of adoration. The whole thing makes Sanji's stomach flutter about like a school of sardines.

 

He dives down again and breaks the surface with enough power to launch himself up the side of the ship and land himself on the railing with his hands and hips. He shoves himself forward and lands on the wood of the upper levels of the deck belly down and pushes himself back up into and arch with his upper body upright. Zoro is halfway across the deck but he pauses and comes back to Sanji. Sanji halts, he'd expected Zoro to be gone but he's coming back and he doesn't know what to do.

 

The man walks close to him, though he's on the deck below so his head is more or less level with the floor that Sanji is on. He feels Zoro's eyes on him and Zoro steps up on a box or something so that he can lean through the spaces in between railing of the deck with his arms.

 

“Does it hurt still?” He asks, his hand moving to the metal clip on Sanji's dorsal fin.

 

“It aches sometimes, but I can swim just fine.” Sanji answers with a shrug. He prefers not to think of his un-numbed surgery, though the words of that doctor hurt him more as he dragged Sanji's past and his identity out in front of Zoro. Zoro didn't feel any differently about him though.

 

“The stitches seem to have healed though. I can't see them.” Zoro remarks his fingertips ghosting over the membranes in between the spines of Sanji's dorsal fin.

 

Sanji doesn't know if there's anywhere that he could touch the swordsman that would feel the same as this. His nerves are so close to the surface that every contact feels like it's being shouted into his brain. When he's under the water he can feel the movement of things far off and find predators and prey alike, they tell him about currents and temperature. Right now though all they tell him about is Zoro. He can feel the curve of Zoro's fingertips, the occasional brush of shortly trimmed nails and calluses from his swords. Just the fact that it's Zoro would be enough, that it's Zoro touching him is even more intense but Zoro touching somewhere on him that's so sensitive is almost too overwhelming.

 

“What's that face for? Does that hurt?” Zoro asks him and Sanji turns to look at the idiot's concerned face.

 

“No.” He responds simply, flicking his dorsal fin flat so that Zoro can't touch it again. Zoro draws his hand back with a confused and concerned frown.

 

“Well... okay.” Zoro says after a few long moments and heads below deck.

 

Sanji lets his head fall against the wood of the deck. Great. Even now he can't seem to sustain long periods of interaction with Zoro if he's not riling him up, fighting with him or laughing at him. They have moments here and there that feel real or feel almost romantic like just then. No matter how badly Sanji wants them though he always seems to panic at some level and sabotage it.

 

He does have feelings for Zoro, strong ones. To say that he's romantically interested in the man would be putting it lightly, but between his physical incompatibility and his inexperience he's not getting anywhere. He runs his hands through his hair, flattening his ear fins as he goes.

 

Right. He can do this. He can.

 

It's Zoro's turn to cook today, that's why he's up so early. So, if Sanji waits in the kitchen Zoro will come back and maybe he can have a proper conversation with him or properly flirt with him. He could kiss Zoro, he knows that, Zoro's never turned him down before. That's not what he wants though. Okay he wouldn't say _no_ , but his goal here is to romance Zoro, at least a little. He grabs the bubbly coral on the necklace around his neck and slides through the bubble it makes, putting it at the ring around his waist, though for the moment it has to sit a little high otherwise it presses right against the clip on his fin. 

 

He half floats and half swims into the kitchen before popping his bubble and setting himself down on one of the barstools there. He drums his fingers on the wood and huffs out a relaxing breath. He can do this. It's easy enough to be cocky and confident when he's trying to bullshit Zoro or when he's being smug, but he wants to actually mean it. If he can't do that then what could he possibly have to offer Zoro in a relationship? He can't offer him sex, so he has to at least be good at this.

 

The door squeaks a little on its hinges and Sanji looks over and the dry and slightly pink cheeked Zoro.

 

“Didn't expect to see you here.” Zoro says, walking closer. Sanji can feel the way he's still warm from the shower, the heat is radiating off of him. Does Zoro find him too cold?

 

“What? Thought you'd lost me as well as your way?” Sanji bites back sarcastically. Good job, real smooth.

 

Despite that Zoro laughs and shoves Sanji in the shoulder. Sanji finds himself relaxing a little. Maybe he doesn't need to be this perfect smooth guy for Zoro, he hasn't been in the past and the idiot still asked him out on a date and then asked him to join the crew. Maybe he just needs to be able to hold a conversation of decent length without threatening to drown the man. How hard can that be?

 

“So,” He begins conversationally, “what're you cooking for breakfast?” 

 

“No clue.” Zoro says to the inside of the fridge as he looks for ingredients.

 

“What? You don't have anything planned?” Sanji frowns.

 

“No, we never do. I'm just trying to see what I can make from what we have.” the other man answers.

 

“That seems... inefficient, and dumb. How can you know what you need if you don't plan what you're going to make? And how can you be sure that you're not screwing up any plans that the next person has? Do none of you plan at all? Surely Nami or Robin do, they're smart enough to do that.” Sanji protests. The lovely ladies on the crew are more than organized enough to ensure that this kind of thing happens. 

 

In fairness Nami is as terrifying as she is pretty. Apparently she had been privy to his abandoning of Zoro on the beach two years ago as she had threatened to filet Sanji if he hurt Zoro again. Beautiful and terrifying indeed.

 

“Nami used to try and plan, but it was too hard and it never worked. Besides it's hard to work out what you have to use for what and when it goes off. It's just complicated.” Zoro shrugs. 

 

“You're an idiot. That doesn't sound hard at all, you can easily work out all that shit by seeing how long it takes things to go bad and learning from it.” Sanji argues back. 

 

“This coming from the man who admitted that he'd never cooked a day in his life and was excused from cooking duty?” Zoro snorts, throwing an onion at Sanji's face. 

 

“It's not my fault that I'm a superior predator and have no need for your silly food preparation.” he huffs as he snatches the thing out of the air. He turns it over in his hands and sniffs it. He knows what an onion is of course, he's just never held on before. It smells really strong. 

 

“Well, if you're so superior and so smart then why don't you show me how it's done? You cook. You said you wanted a job on the ship, now you have one.” the swordsman says with a smug grin. Sanji glares at him, fucking smug seaweed brain. 

 

“Fine. I can't be any worse at it than you, can I?” Sanji says haughtily, making Zoro chuckle as he puts his ingredients down by the stove. Sanji pushes himself up on his hands and tries to peer around Zoro to see what he's doing. Ugh, the stupid marimo keeps getting in the way. He makes himself a bubble and swims up to Zoro's side, looking at what he's doing. 

 

“You're gonna help right now, huh?” Zoro asks with a grin. 

 

“Why should I watch you screw something up when I could do it myself?” he sneers.

 

“So you're going to screw it up instead of me then?” the other man asks smugly. Sanji frowns and replays what he said in his head and groans, he screwed that up. 

 

“Shut up, you're distracting me.” Sanji barks and looks down at Zoro's assembled ingredients. He's got all kinds of vegetables here but Sanji isn't sure if they're all going to cook at the same time and if he has to cook them differently. He bites his lip and looks around the kitchen. There are spices and tools shoved everywhere, they're stuck in places so that they won't get damaged or lost when the ship moves but other than that there doesn't seem to be any organization. This won't do. Up on a shelf he spots a book.

 

“What's that-” Sanji starts but one look at Zoro tells him that Zoro's just going to deliberately annoy him and say something obvious like 'it's a book', so he changes his question slightly.

 

“What's that book about?” He asks, pointing to it. 

 

“Uh... it's just recipes and shit.” the swordsman answers, squinting at it with his one working eye. Sanji wonders if he can't see so well now. 

 

“Well pass me that book on 'recipes and shit' then.” Sanji says, quoting Zoro exactly and mimicking his voice as best as he can.

 

“Why should I do what you say, huh? Get it yourself.” Zoro responds, clearly just being contrary for the sake of it. Sanji grits his teeth, Zoro is so fucking annoying sometimes and he's just begging for someone to kick his ass and shove his face in how dumb he is. He leaps from his bubble, popping it as he moves. He grabs for Zoro's shoulders and heaves himself up so that he's holding himself above Zoro with his tail wrapped around the man's ribs and around again to his hip.

 

“Hey, what're you doing?” Zoro demands, wide eyed and reflexively holding onto Sanji's tail to stop him falling, not that Sanji would. He's plenty stable and strong like this, he's wrapped himself around Zoro like his before when he's tried to drown him. It's a little different on dry land though. 

 

“Getting that book, what're you gonna do about it?” he says, tightening his tail around Zoro's chest to demonstrate that he could crush him pretty badly if he wanted to. He's done too in the water before, trying to squeeze the air from his lungs to drown him. Zoro's eye widens and Sanji figures that he gets the point. 

 

He reaches up and grabs the book, it is indeed a recipe book. He drops the book onto the counter with a weighty thud. Sanji looks down, thinking of working out where to put the bubble so he can drop off of Zoro and smugly go back to what he was doing. That thought entirely derails when he sees how Zoro is looking at him. Zoro's hands are on his tail, holding him close but it's the expression on Zoro's face that is most notable, he's looking at Sanji like he's everything that he's ever wanted. Sanji's heart clutches in his chest and he drops down so that he's sitting on the counter next to the book. He relaxes his vice grip on Zoro and his tail slides down Zoro's body and he curls it loosely around his leg.

 

"I..." Zoro says in a disoriented voice, looking at him intensely. Sanji fists his hand in Zoro's shirt and pulls him closer, he had wanted to flirt with Zoro first or manage to have a normal conversation with him first instead of just leaping in and kissing him like this. But how can he be expected to do that if Zoro looks at him like that?

 

He kisses him harshly and desperately, it's just been a week but it feels like forever. Zoro whines in his throat and Sanji can FEEL it through his fingertips. He tightens his tail again and pulls Zoro closer, he needs him as close as possible right now. Zoro's hands come to Sanji's sides and it's like he can't decide where to put them, or rather he wants to put them everywhere and just can't keep still. He lets Zoro go, if only because he's starting to get a little out of breath and Zoro doesn't seem any better.

 

He sees Zoro smile, slow and sweet and Sanji just has to kiss him again for that. This time they're a little slower and Sanji gets his hands in Zoro's hair, tangling between the strands and using his grip to pull Zoro closer or tilt his head slightly. Zoro kisses Sanji's jaw and down a little bit before pausing.

 

“Can I kiss you here?” Zoro asks quietly and Sanji can hear in his voice how much this is affecting him. Zoro's thumb just skirts on the edge of Sanji's gills, careful not to touch them. 

 

“I guess you could, I don't know why you'd want to but sure. Just don't stick your tongue in there or anything.” Sanji frowns. What's the big deal? They're just gills, he breathes through them. Sure Zoro kisses his mouth but he can kiss Zoro back like that. 

 

Zoro gently peppers kisses down the side of Sanji's neck and then cautiously over his gills. Sanji wrinkles his nose a little, it doesn't feel bad, just odd.

 

“Is that okay?” Zoro asks with a worried pinch to his brow, having clearly caught Sanji's expression.

 

“It's fine, just... odd. It's like if I asked if I could kiss your ears or something. I could but it'd be kinda weird and pointless. They're nothing special.” He answers with a shrug. 

 

“Forgive me for being curious, I'll get back to what I'm supposed to be doing then.” the other man says, flashing him a slightly devious grin before yanking Sanji in for a more intense kiss that sends Sanji's heart and his fins fluttering. Zoro's hands are still roaming on him and when they come back to Sanji's dorsal fin and the membrane of it he hears himself whine into Zoro's mouth. It'd be easier to enjoy if the kelp brained idiot didn't glow with self congratulation every time he does something right. The irritatingly attractive human nips at Sanji's lip and Sanji very carefully returns the favor, making Zoro sigh happily.

 

“You know I could bite right through you, my teeth are way sharper than yours.” Sanji points out, pulling back and grinning wide to show his shark sharp teeth. He's not got any shark in him, but from his teeth it'd be hard to tell except for the fact that his teeth are nicer than the sharks he's known. They're just as sharp though and he can rip through the skin of much tougher creatures than humans with their fragile skin. Zoro doesn't care though, Zoro just... lets him.

 

“I trust you.” Zoro shrugs and kisses him again. 

 

“You're talking to the guy who's tried to drown you on multiple occasions and that's just this week.” Sanji says with a slight laugh. 

 

“Eh, what's a little attempted murder in the grand scheme of things?” Zoro laughs lowly as his hands roam up and down Sanji's back.

 

With a detached sense of horror Sanji watches himself sabotage the entire fucking thing because he's a moron.

 

“I've done worse, I hurt you, I abandoned you. Why do you keep trusting me?” He asks, pressing his face into Zoro's shoulder not able to look him in the eye when he's thinking this kind of thing. 

 

“You had your reasons for leaving and it doesn't matter now anyway, if it helps I never stopped looking out for you when I saw the sea. I care about what you're doing now and you're here on the ship with me, that's what matters. I trust you.” the other man points out with a frown.

 

“Great, I abandoned you so rudely and without reason that you kept hoping I'd come back, even if it was just to explain what the hell I was thinking.” Sanji mutters angrily and he unwraps his tail from Zoro, curling in on himself as guilt and anger at himself gnaw on his insides like a parasite. 

 

“No! I've never felt like this with anyone before, that's important! That's why I never stopped looking. I told you, I don't want anyone else, I want you!” Zoro insists sharply and his expression is strong and fierce, his eye pinning Sanji with burning intensity. 

 

“What am I supposed to say to that?” He asks quietly, almost meekly. He never feels meek, not about anything but in the face of the enormity of what Zoro is saying he feels... small and stupid. He has nothing to offer back, not to someone like Zoro. 

 

“I don't- I shouldn't-” Zoro stammers out, his face going bright red. Sanji panics, he should have said something real about that, like agreeing that he's never felt this for anyone either, which is true. Instead it sounded like he was rejecting Zoro. 

 

“I mean, wait- I didn't mean that! I like you too, you know that!” Sanji blurts out. 

 

“Hah, no. Don't... don't worry about it. I'll leave you to cooking and I think I hear Usopp calling me.” Zoro says in one long stream of words and backs out of the kitchen. 

 

Sanji whines and picks up the cookbook, he needs something that heavy to bash his head in with it. He smacks it into his forehead over and over again. What the fuck is he doing? How did he screw that up so badly? He really wants this to work, he does, but he just can't get through this without this kind of thing happening. 

 

Sanji hears a thunk outside and for a second he fears that maybe Zoro fell over something, and then he hears it again. Frowning he makes himself a bubble and swims over to the window. Zoro is standing by the mast, hitting his head against it just like Sanji had been doing with his book. 

 

Like everything else when it comes to comparing humans to damn near every other species, humans are inferior. He can  _hear_ Zoro muttering to himself. But it becomes a lot clearer when he opens the window ever so slightly. 

 

“Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.” Zoro groans, banging his head against the mast. 

 

“What the fuck was that? Why not just get down on one knee while you're at it?” Zoro hisses at himself and then sighs in frustration, running his hands through his hair. Zoro turns and heads towards the hatch that leads to the man's quarters with an unhappy mutter. Franky and Brook appear moments after on the way up.

 

“What was that about?” Brook asks in confusion. 

 

“I bet I can guess.” Franky snorts and rolls his eyes. 

 

“Aah, our new aquatic friend.” Brook trills with laughter. 

 

Sanji shuts the window and frowns. He's not sure what that knee thing was about, some human idiom perhaps? Even if he didn't understand that part he feels a little better that it's not just him who's saying the wrong thing. Zoro usually seems so cool and calm when the two of them talk, but maybe he waits until he's alone before berating himself, just like Sanji does. It's still not a good sign if neither of them can manage to talk properly to each other for any real length of time, but at least Sanji isn't the only one worrying about it. It feels a little better to know that he's not alone.

 

He turns around, he had just been mocking Zoro when he had said about cooking but now Zoro's left him to it and he really does have to do it. He swims over to the book and flicks it open, eyeing what Zoro left out on the side. There must be something in here that he can make with that and he'll be sure to do a better job that Zoro would do. He might not be able to interact normally with the subject of his affections but he absolutely can piss him off just for fun. 

 

Besides, it's cooking. How hard can it be?

 


End file.
